GALLIA WEIGHED

Too Long; Didn't Read

A quarter of an hour later, the visitors to the Hansa had reassembled in the common hall of Nina’s Hive. “Now, gentlemen, we can proceed,” said the professor. “May I request that this table may be cleared?” Ben Zoof removed the various articles that were lying on the table, and the coins which had just been borrowed from the Jew were placed upon it in three piles, according to their value. The professor commenced. “Since none of you gentlemen, at the time of the shock, took the precaution to save either a meter measure or a kilogramme weight from the earth, and since both these articles are necessary for the calculation on which we are engaged, I have been obliged to devise means of my own to replace them.” This exordium delivered, he paused and seemed to watch its effect upon his audience, who, however, were too well acquainted with the professor’s temper to make any attempt to exonerate themselves from the rebuke of carelessness, and submitted silently to the implied reproach. “I have taken pains,” he continued, “to satisfy myself that these coins are in proper condition for my purpose. I find them unworn and unchipped; indeed, they are almost new. They have been hoarded instead of circulated; accordingly, they are fit to be utilized for my purpose of obtaining the precise length of a terrestrial meter.”