It is now the very next morning, as we return to the Luthor lair, where Otis and Miss Teschmacher are pondering over the front-page item in the Planet: I SPENT THE NIGHT WITH SUPERMAN --- An Exclusive Interview by Lois Lane. Lex himself, meanwhile, is fathoming the ramafications of this obviously earth-shattering conversation. "Now then," he mutters, "given the exact location of the galaxy that he mentions .... and its proximity to our own solar system ....." Luthor cannot drink it all in. "It's amazing! Amazing!" He even finds it too good to be true.

"It's too good to be true," repeats Miss Teschmacher. "He's 6'4", has black hair, blue eyes, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke --- and tells the truth!"

"Miss Teschmacher, some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking that it's a simple adventure story," comments Luthor. "Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper --- and unlock the secrets of the Universe!"

"Lex, what has chewing gum got to do with the secrets of the Universe?"

"Yeah," Luthor mutters again. "Right, Miss Teschmacher. Right ....."

"....N, N....."

"M! You want M, Mr. Luthor? Comin' right up!" Otis inadvertently moves the ladder to the other side of the book stack, practically leaving Luthor hanging by a thread. "There you go, M," says Otis.

"M as in moron, Otis?" bellows Luthor angrily. "No no no no, it's N! N as in neanderthal, nincompoop, nitwit! Oh yeah: and L as in ladder!"

"Gee, I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor..... I..... Oops! Oh, ladder, Mr. Luthor, comin' right up," stammers the brainless Otis.

"In the interview he says that the Planet Krypton ---- Oooooh!!! ---- exploded in 1948," Luthor continues. "Ridiculous little freak took three years in a rocketship to get to Earth. Ergo ---"

Otis is trying to get all the information cleared up in his head. "Ergo, ergo ..... 1948 ..... 3 years ..... he's 6'4", ya know that?"

"I said that," Miss Teschmacher reminds Otis.

"Did you say he don't drink and he don't smoke?"

"I said that. It was in the paper right there, I said that."

"Do you know why the number 200 is so vitally descriptive to both you and me?" Luthor asks Otis.

"Huh?"

"It's your weight and my I.Q. Now think, people --- THINK!" With friends like these, it's no wonder they're so interested in pulling off the Crime of the Century. "Deductive reasoning, that's the name of the game," Lex continues. He then begins to speculate: "If fragments from the Planet Krypton exploded and went into outer space, it is reasonable to assume that some of those particles of debris drifted to Earth."

Now, it's Miss Teschmacher's turn to figure it all out: "Meteorites!"

"Ja wohl," smiles Luthor, ripping out a page from a recent issue of National Geographic which seems to confirm his theory. "Voila!" he proclaims, as the page falls into Otis' hands. "Voila," Otis mutters as he hands the page to Miss Teschmacher.

"A meteorite found in Addis Ababa?" The page is a photograph of a top Ethiopian geologist holding up some sort of strange green rock. "I know I'm gonna get rapped in the mouth for this," says Miss Teschmacher, "but --- so what?"

"Yeah, so what? I mean, to us, they're just meteorites," says Luthor. "Fair enough. But ---- the level of specific radioactivity is so high that if anyone from the Planet Krypton were to come into physical contact with something like this --- well, the substance would prove lethal!"

"Waitaminnit, Mr. Luthor!" says Otis. "You mean, fire and bullets can't hurt this guy, but this stuff here ---"

"---- WILL KILL HIM!" Otis and Miss Teschmacher now utter together, finally understanding it all.

Smugly, Luthor begins to smile. "Doesn't it give you a kind of a shudder of electricity through you to be here in the same room with me?" he asks sarcastically.

"Hmph! Not like the shudder you're gonna get when you try to lay that rock on him," warns Miss Teschmacher. "He can see it coming for miles with those super-peepers of his."

"O Lord," grumbles Luthor. "He gave them eyes, but they cannot see --- nor can Superman through lead ...."

"He can't see through lead!"

"And Kryptonite will destroy him," repeats Luthor. Then: "Any questions, class?"

"I wonder what they're wearing in Addis Ababa," ponders Miss Teschmacher.

"Looks like a brenouse --- y'know, one of those wraparounds," comments Otis. Then the bumbling dimwit asks: "Are we going to Addis Ababa, Mr. Luthor?" Lex just buries his head in his hands. How did he end up with these two idiots, anyway?