They sent shivers down your spine.
No sooner had Persikov read the warrant, than he jumped up and rushed to the telephone.
A few seconds later he was already saying hastily in a state of extreme irritation:
"Forgive me... I just don't understand... How can it be?
Without my consent or advice... The devil only knows what he'll do!"
At that point the stranger, highly offended, spun round on the stool.
"Pardon me, but I'm in charge..." he began.
But Persikov shook a crooked finger at him and went on:
"Excuse me, but I just don't understand. In fact, I object categorically.
I refuse to sanction any experiments with the eggs... Until I have tried them myself..."
Something croaked and rattled in the receiver, and even at a distance it was clear that the indulgent voice on the phone was talking to a small child.
In the end a purple-faced Persikov slammed down the receiver, shouting over it at the wall:
"I wash my hands of the whole business!"
Going back to the table, he picked up the warrant, read it once from top to bottom over his spectacles, then from bottom to top through them, and suddenly howled:
"Pankrat!"
Pankrat appeared in the doorway as if he had shot up through the trap-door in an opera.
Persikov glared at him and barked:
"Go away, Pankrat!"
And Pankrat disappeared, his face not expressing the slightest surprise.
Then Persikov turned to the newcomer and said:
"I beg your pardon. I will obey.
It's none of my business.
And of no interest to me."
The newcomer was not so much offended as taken aback.
"Excuse me," he began, "but comrade..."
"Why do you keep saying comrade all the time," Persikov muttered, then fell silent.
"Well, I never," was written all over Feight's face.
"Pard..."
"Alright then, here you are," Persikov interrupted him. "See this arc lamp.
From this you obtain by moving the eyepiece," Persikov clicked the lid of the chamber, like a camera, "a beam which you can collect by moving the lenses, number 1 here... and the mirror, number 2." Persikov put the ray out, then lit it again on the floor of the asbestos chamber. "And on the floor you can put anything you like and experiment with it.
Extremely simple, is it not?"
Persikov intended to express irony and contempt, but the newcomer was peering hard at the chamber with shining eyes and did not notice them.
"Only I warn you," Persikov went on. "You must not put your hands in the ray, because from my observations it causes growths of the epithelium. And whether they are malignant or not, I unfortunately have not yet had time to establish."
Hereupon the newcomer quickly put his hands behind his back, dropping his leather cap, and looked at the Professor's hands.
They were stained with iodine, and the right hand was bandaged at the wrist.
"But what about you, Professor?"
"You can buy rubber gloves at Schwabe's on Kuznetsky," the Professor replied irritably. "I'm not obliged to worry about that"
At this point Persikov stared hard at the newcomer as if through a microscope.
"Where are you from?
And why have you..."
Feight took offence at last.
"Pard..."
"But a person should know what he's doing!
Why have you latched on to this ray?"
"Because it's a matter of the greatest importance..."
"Hm.
The greatest importance?
In that case... Pankrat!"
And when Pankrat appeared:
"Wait a minute, I must think." " Pankrat dutifully disappeared again.