another pinch from my shirt front and favored me with
a rusty smile.

"Ah!" he said: "You must take time to look into a little monograph of
mine: _Man in Miniature; a Study of the Anthropology of the Frog_. You
regard the frog, of course?"

"Oh, I say, yes--fine, you know!" I answered, my mouth watering. By
Jove! I thought of the devilish good things they got up in season down
at the Cafe Grenouille.

"My dear sir!" The professor bowed to me. "I can not express to you how
gratifying to me this meeting is. I must get a list of your societies
and degrees. So few appreciate the frog; so many, even in the scientific
world, deride my published claim that congenious with man is the _rana
mugiens_ or American bullfrog."

By Jove! they were certainly congenial with me, all right.

"Awfully hard to swallow unless well done, don't you know," I demurred
thoughtfully.

"Truly incredible, sir!"

The professor took another pinch and held it in front of him.

"But I have allowed for that," he added, emphasizing with his other
hand. "My frog brochure meets that difficulty and whets the appetite of
the most mediocre."

"By Jove, Billings!" I exclaimed eagerly, "we must tell Marchand about
it over at the club." I was so devilish tired of his eternal _sauce
delicieuse_, his _sauce aigre_, his _sauce ecossaise_ and the rest,
don't you know.

The professor inclined his head gravely.

"Ha, French! Then Monsieur Marchand has done something with the frog,
has he?" he questioned.

"Twenty-nine different stunts," Billings replied proudly. "I _know_
because I'm on the House Committee. Yes, _sir_, frogs are his specialty;
that man can get more out of a frog than any other living man."

The professor looked a little nettled.

"Oh, indeed!" he said rather coldly.

"I tell you, Professor, he's got 'em _all_ skinned!" Billings enthused.

The remark provoked a contemptuous sniff.

"Undoubtedly, that being the proper condition preliminary to comparative
anatomical study," said the professor loftily. "Then the physical
resemblance to a man becomes startling. I have identified every analogy
with man except the beautiful phenomenon of the beating of the frog
heart twenty-four hours after separation from the body--the living body,
sir. Experiment upon the living human specimen is necessary for
confirmation of the homologous structure of the two hearts, however.
This I have not done--not yet."

He spoke gloomily. I looked at Billings