My captor ran from my presence and, in a few moments, returned with two other professors. They peered into the cage in painful astonishment, while I contented myself by taking my watch apart and occasionally glancing at my select audience.
Then commenced the jibbering consultation, all of which I well understood. My captor related the full circumstances in connection with his walk in the grove and the manner in which he captured me. He dwelt particularly on the indifference I manifested in all his dealings with me.
"It is a baby Mon-go-din," suggested the one professor, while the other advanced the theory that I was an abnormal child of some Jupiterite.
My watch excited their curiosity. One reached his hand cautiously through the bars and evinced by his actions what he wanted. I looked up into his eyes and spoke my first words.
"Patience, please, till I put the watch together, and you shall have it."
Not only did his arms fly away from the cage, but his whole body fell prostrate to the floor, whether from fright or surprise, I knew not. His two companions were also in a sorry plight. I pretended not to notice their consternation, and kept myself busy in placing the parts of my watch together.
After a while I was addressed by a trembling questioner: "Where is your home, my child?" I did not lift my eyes, but completed my little self-appointed task, and at once raised the watch in fulfillment of my promise.
The timid professor ventured to accept it and, as he received it from my hand, he again asked: "Where is your home?"
"Farther away than the circumference of your world," I distinctly answered.
At this time the three agreed that I was an insane child, born out of time, and that I satisfied my propensities by gathering to myself such idiotic things as my watch and garments, including my hat and shoes.