“Are you gentlemen playing some sort of joke?” he
asked.
[p84]
“The Government doesn’t pay us to play jokes,” Cartwell informed him cryptically. “Do you know the language?”
Professor Nichols shook his head. “I know every spoken language in the world, and I know many of the dead languages at least by sight. I don’t know this one.”
“You’re serious?”
The old man nodded. “This must be some sort of jest on me. There is no language on Earth, dead or alive, that matches this.”
“We aren’t joking, Professor,” Nolan said seriously.
“Then, my friend, someone must be playing a joke on you. No linguist can identify this language. I’ll stake my reputation on that. Where did you get this?”
Cartwell smiled. “I’m sorry, professor, but we cannot disclose that information. We’ll also have to ask you to forget about it. Government business, you know.”
“Yes, of course. Is there anything else? I have a class in three minutes...”