jest on us if she made us swallow our own
concoction; if she revealed to our colleagues our pretended knowledge of
the Golden Glacier and James Skaw and the supposedly ice-imbedded herd of
mammoths, and then publicly forced us to investigate this hoax.

More horrible still would it be if she informed the newspapers and gave
them a hint to make merry over the three wise men of the Bronx who went
to Baffin Land in a boat.

"_What_ do you suppose that devious and secretive female is up to?"
inquired Lezard who, within the last few days, had grown thin with worry.
"Is it possible that she is sufficiently degraded to suspect us of trying
to put one over on her? Is that what she is now doing to us?"

"_Terminus est_--it is the limit!" said I.

He turned a morbid eye upon me. "She is making a monkey of us. That's
what!"

"_Suspendenda omnia naso_," I nodded; "_tarde sed tute_. When I think
aloud in Latin it means that I am deeply troubled. _Suum quemque scelus
agitat._ Do you get me, Professor? I'm sorry I attempted to be sportive
with this terrible woman. The curse of my scientific career has been
periodical excesses of frivolity. See where this frolicsome impulse
has landed me!--_super abyssum ambulans. Trahit sua quemque voluptas;
transeat in exemplum!_ She means to let us go to our destruction on this
mammoth frappe affair."

But Dr. Fooss was optimistic:

"I tink she iss alretty herselluf by dot Baffin Land ge-gone," he said.
"I tink she has der bait ge-swallowed. Ve vait; ve see; und so iss it ve
know."

"But why hasn't she stopped our preparations?" I demanded. "If she wants
all the glory herself why does she permit us to incur this expense in
getting ready?"

"No mans can to know der vorkings of der mental brocess by a
Frauenzimmer," said Dr. Fooss, wagging his head.

The suspense became nerve-racking; we were obliged to pack our camping
kits; and it began to look as though we would have either to sail the
next morning or to resign from the Bronx Park Zooelogical Society, because
all the evening papers had the story in big type--the details and objects
of the expedition, the discovery of the herd of mammoths in cold storage,
the prompt organization of an expedition to secure this unparalleled
deposit of prehistoric mammalia--everything was there staring at us in
violent print, excepting only the name of the discoverer and the names of
those composing the field expedition.

"She means to betray us after w