identification, if that's still possible. You may imagine the tight security the Germans have thrown up about all this. They're fairly frothing at the mouth.'
'There's a point you haven't gone into,' Indy said.
'Which is, sir?'
'Who were the people in that flying whatchamacallit, or whatever it was?
And in those scimitarshaped machines as well?'
'We don't have the first clue, Professor Jones.'
'You realize,' Pencroft broke in, 'that the machines you have described to us don't exist? That nothing of those descriptions exists, or has been made, by any country known to us?'
'Yes, sir.'
An uneasy silence fell between them. Pencroft used the moment to have more tea and brandy brought in by his secretary. Then it was time to get to what Indiana would call the nittygritty.
'A few questions, please,' Pencroft said abruptly, to bring events back to the fore.
'Of course,' Treadwell acknowledged.
'You didn't come to this institution by accident.'
'No, sir.'
'I suggest you came here specifically to seek out and in some manner enlist the services of Professor Jones?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Who sent you?'
Treadwell took a deep breath. 'M.I. Two.'
Pencraft's brows rose with confirmation of so high a level in the British government. He exchanged glances with Indy, then turned back to Treadwell.
'So now,' Pencraft said slowly, 'you pursue the services of our good archeology professor.'
'Yes, sir.'
'That,' Indy interjected, 'makes as much sense as your sky devils, or sky pirates, or whatever they are—if they even exist. People who've been blasted, burned, shocked, and dumped into the sea are capable of seeing anything.
But we'll let that go for the moment. Mr. Treadwell, I'm on sabbatical leave from Princeton University—'
'Where you are a professor of Medieval Literature and Studies,' Treadwell finished for him.
'You're up on your homework,' Indy said with a nod. 'Which means your office at least knows how to look up people's names and titles in a university staff telephone book. But to continue. I am now teaching Celtic Archeology.
This isn't my first relationship here.'
'We threw him out once before,' Pencroft chuckled. 'He'll tell you he became fed up with overstuffed, overbearing academic versions of our everlasting Colonel Blimp and left here of his own volition. Frankly, he's really quite insufferable, he breaks rules, he dashes off on wild goose chases, but,' Pencroft said seriously, 'he often manages to return with the golden eggs laid by the geese. Like bringing us the Omphalos of Delphi, for which we had searched for decades, believing it was always linked
somehow with Stonehenge. We were right, but getting nowhere. Our misfit colonist here,' he nodded at Indy, 'did the impossible, broke all the rules, but succeeded in what we thought was really quite impossible.'
Treadwell didn't miss a beat. 'And Professor Jones has a pattern.'
'Oh?' Indy said.
'Yes, sir. He's subject to a disease the Americans call cabin fever. He can take just so much of academia and then he fairly bursts with the urge to get out in the field and rummage about antiquities, whether in deserts or mountain regions or jungles. I apologize, sir,' he said to Indy directly, 'if there is any seeming lack of consideration for the loss of your wife some years ago. None was intended.'
'None was taken,' Indy replied coolly. 'I point out to you that my remaining time here is limited. I plan to return to Princeton or perhaps some other university that is involved in field missions.'
'I don't believe you'll be doing that,' Treadwell said.
'You fascinate me, Mr. Treadwell. Very few people have ever judged my future with such conviction.'
Treadwell laughed. 'No such control was intimated, sir. To use a favorite expression from your side of the ocean, Professor Jones, I believe we have an offer for you that you simply cannot refuse.'
He leaned forward in his seat, and the other two men in the room knew he was coming down to the heart of the matter.
'We desire that Professor Jones undertake to learn the identity of the unknown aerial vehicles we have discussed.
To find out whatever is possible about them, identify their source. We are convinced there is more to this affair than the ravings of an airliner crewman in shock. For reasons that will be readily apparent, we also desire that Professor Jones continue a very public association with the University of London, so that he will arouse no special interest, no matter where he may go in the world for his, ah, archeological digs. He would, of course, be working for us, but completely sub rosa.'
'Do you have any concept of the financial burden you're talking about?'
Pencroft broke in. 'The university board of governors would never approve of—'
