He reached for another cigar and went off into a brown study, wrapping himself in clouds of smoke. I thought that maybe if I kept quite still he might come to himself all right. Meantime, for want of something to do, and to keep from getting so devilish sleepy, I fell to turning over the pajamas, admiring their beauty and daintiness and kind of half-daringly wondering how _she_ would-- And suddenly I made a discovery; and I forgot about keeping still. "By Jove, Billings!" I exclaimed excitedly. "Here's something inside the collar--some sort of jolly writing!" "What's that?" said Billings sharply. He jerked the garment from my hand and held it in the light. All round the circle within the collar band ran four or five darker red lines of queer little crisscross characters. "Chinese laundry marks, you idiot," he commented carelessly. And then he ducked his head closer with a quick intake of breath. "By George, Dicky!" he cried, his voice tremulous with some excitement. "Can't be that either; it's woven in--awfully fine, neat job, too. Now, what do you suppose--" He broke off wonderingly. CHAPTER XVI AN INSCRIPTION AND A MYSTERY Billings rubbed his chin perplexedly. "By jigger, now, I wonder what those hen tracks mean?" he uttered musingly. Then he looked up at me with sudden animation in his face. "Look here, Dicky," he exclaimed, "do you happen to know Doozenberry?" I tried to remember. I shut one eye and studied the marks closely through my glass, but had to shake my head at last. "Sorry, old chap; don't seem to remember it at all if I ever did--not a dashed glimmer of it left." I yawned. "Never tried to keep any of those college things, you know." Billings, who had been staring, uttered a rude comment. "It's not a language, you cuckoo," he snapped; "it's a man. He's a D.S.--distinguished scientist, you know. What's more, he's one of your neighbors, right in this building." "Don't know him," I said a little stiffly. "What's his club?" Billings all but gnashed his teeth. "Club, thunder!" he jerked out impatiently. "Why, man, he's a member of all the great societies of the world--bodies whose rank and exclusiveness put the blink on all the clubs you or I ever saw. Got a string of letters after his name like a universal keyboard, and is the main squeeze, the great scream, among all the scientific push over here and in Europe. Lots of dough, but off his trolley with learning." "And in this building?" I said wonderingly. "What's he like?"