The conversation commenced, and the harsh jabber which they carried on was very interesting to the rest of the party.
“Bless me; you’d think the Greek was talking in his own tongue,” remarked Sir Arthur. “Reminds me of our old Greek professor at Balliol College, Oxford. He loved the language of the Athenians so much that he hated to use the English tongue at all. Worst of it was he expected all of us to be as fluent as himself. Made us all talk Greek in the class-room. I’ll never forget how we got even with him. Lord Somebody or other—I can’t recall the name now, but it was some celebrated man—visited the college. I don’t suppose he knew Greek from Hottentot, but we made the professor believe it was a famous Greek scholar who was coming, one who had been making excavations on the site of old Troy during the past four years, and who, strangely enough, was then in England and expected on a visit to Oxford. The professor prepared an elaborate address in pure Greek, and when the visitor entered the class-room he delivered it in the most eloquent manner.
“‘What’s that fool talking about?’ asked the visitor.
“‘Oh,’ says young Ormsby, who was sitting near me, ‘he’s lecturing the class on “Political Economy in Ancient Athens.” He’ll be through in a moment and able to receive you.’
“The visitor left the room highly insulted, and the professor, when he discovered the truth a day or two later, nearly took apoplexy.”
As the laughter that greeted this little reminiscence of Sir Arthur’s ceased, Canaris finished his conversation with Bildad.
“It is difficult to converse with him,” he reported, “but from what I can learn he dived from the very embrace of the serpent, and succeeded in swimming to the other canoe, which he had turned adrift only a moment or two before. Without paddles or food he floated behind us into the lake.”
“It’s a miracle that he escaped the serpents,” said the coionel, “floating about on the lake all the time.”
“But how did he know anything about the entrance to the river?” exclaimed Guy. “Did you ask him that, Canaris?”
“Yes,” said the Greek. “He says he discovered it himself a year or two ago just as the old Englishman must have done.”