With the aid of pins, pens, wires and
boxes, he soon set up a telephone which put him into communication with
the boy whose desk was farthest away. He possessed tools necessary for
any of his tricks, and his desk was a veritable bazaar: copybooks,
books, pen-holders and paper were mixed pell-mell with the most unlikely
objects, such as fragments of fencing foils, drugs, chemical products,
oil, grease, bolts, skate wheels, and tablets of chocolate. In one
corner, carefully concealed, were some glass tubes which awaited a
favorable moment for projecting against the ceiling a ball of chewed
paper. Attached to this ball, a paper personage cut out of a copybook
cover danced feverishly in space. When this grotesque figurine became
quiet, another paper ball, shot with great skill, renewed the dancing
to the great satisfaction of the young marksman. Airplanes made of paper
were also hidden in this desk, awaiting the propitious hour for
launching them; and the professor's desk sometimes served as their
landing place.... Everything, indeed, was to be found there, but in such
disorder that the owner himself could never find them.
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