ed and bowed.

"Of course, the rendition is entirely a free one," he remarked. "You
must not expect too much."

"Devilish handsome and clever of him!" I whispered to Billings, as the
professor proceeded to adjust his spectacles. "Dash it, I wish he'd let
me pay him, though."

"Forget it!" hissed Billings. "Didn't he just say it was free? He's no
cheap skate, I tell you."

The professor resumed:

"Now we come to the second line, or, more strictly speaking, column," he
said, straightening impressively. "Here we find the astonishing claim
made that there will be a change or metamorphosis of any kind of animal
life that these habiliments enshroud. Um!"

The great man breathed heavily and batted at us over his glasses.

"_Credat Judaeus apella_--eh, gentlemen?" And he winked knowingly.
Dashed if he didn't almost catch me swallowing a yawn, too! For I hadn't
any idea what he was talking about or driving at, and, by Jove, I _did_
know I was getting devilish sleepy.

The professor waved his glasses. "Did you ever read such a childish,
ridiculous, extravagant asseveration?" he demanded.

"Ass--eh? I should say so!" I worked this off indignantly.

"Tommyrot!" murmured Billings absently. He seemed thoughtful.

I was thoughtful, too--wondering, by Jove, whether the professor would
go soon, so we could turn in and get the earlier start to-morrow up the
river. But chiefly I was wondering wistfully if Frances would still be
angry with me.

"Moreover," broke in the professor's voice as he turned again to the
lettering, "to assert further that there will be a semblance--not
actual, gentlemen, mind you, but an optical illusion--taking the form of
some creature of the same kind that this silken tenement has previously
inclosed.

"In other words, gentlemen, if I were to don these garments, I might no
longer look like myself, but like some one else who had worn them upon
some previous occasion--perhaps last night--perhaps a thousand years
ago. Eh? Is that what you understand?"

He ducked again over the letters and came up, looking chagrined.

"Moreover, I am forced to confess, gentlemen, that I fail to find a
system--any rule governing these ridiculous transformations. The
hypothesis is, therefore, that the alleged materializations merely
follow the arbitrary caprice of the magic." He shook his head. "Well,
gentlemen, I--really, I must laugh!"

And he did! I hadn't caught the drift of what it was he thought he was
laugh