Chapter 31—Gallia Weighed
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 wat
