"I erred, gentlemen," went on the professor, "in trusting most unscientifically to the false principle that the hand is quicker than the eye. It is _not_ true, for one of the guards saw me and my carelessness cost me dearly: I not only lost the silk, but a singularly beautiful gold thread altar cloth and a matchless amulet of _yu-chi jade_, you know--white jade, at that, gentlemen, I assure you--a rare bit of carving of the second century--real Khoton jade, too--no base _fei-tsui_. But, alas! I lost them, my friends; they confiscated them, and no doubt they are still there in their original places from which I had--a--attached them. Do you wonder at my mortification? And then the sacrifice of a whole year of planning, watching, bribing and perfecting of preliminary disguise! All fruitless, fruitless!"
The professor lifted and dropped his palms in eloquent deprecation.
Billings' foot pressed mine. "Now, wouldn't that frost you?" he whispered under his breath. Aloud he exclaimed indignantly:
"Beastly outrage; it must have been painful."
The professor started in the act of lifting the pajamas again.
"Pain? I did not speak of the physical consequences. They were too terrible to discuss. I--"
The pajamas dropped from his hands and his eyes took on that somewhere-else, far-off look, don't you know.
"Sort of 'third degree' work, Professor?" Billings prodded him.
The professor did not reply. His long, slim fingers swept his forehead for an instant and he looked away again, his little eyes dilated. Somehow it made one feel devilish uncomfortable, dash it!
Billings cocked his eye at me and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. Then he deliberately kicked at the tabouret and sent its brass fixture set clattering noisily across the room.
The professor shivered, compressed his lips and blinked at us.
"Your pardon, gentlemen," he observed in some confusion. "Some one was asking me--"
"What they did to you when you lift--I mean when you lost the--er--loot."
He stared, shivered again and returned to the pajamas, muttering an almost inaudible reply.
We caught a word or two: "Long imprisonment--much physical pain--unspeakable things--do not like to think of it--I--"
His eyes closed. He folded his long, thin arms shudderingly. Billings and I sat very still. The professor's voice came as from far away: