"A venom," Golfin went on, "injected by means of a pin or needle. The
coroner found--will find, that is--a small puncture in the small of
your back on the right side, with some of the venom still imbedded,
along with the paste."
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," I said. "I'm getting out of
here." I turned toward the door.
"Wait!" Sarah Fish said. "Mr. Golfin says it will happen when you try
to leave."
My momentum left me as my hand touched the doorknob. It flowed out of
me. I turned around and faced them.
"Just how do you know all this?" I said, glaring at the little man.
"I suppose I had better tell you," he said. "I'm _Dr._ Golfin."
"Oh," I said.
* * * * *
He reached into his breast pocket and extracted an expensive leather
billfold. Looking quite important for his size, he took out a card and
extended it to me.
"My specialty is--has been," he said, "amnesiacs. I've made a life
study of them."
I looked at the card. It gave the name, Dr. S. L. Golfin, and an
address on Wabash, Chicago.
"The phenomenon of amnesia interested me," he went on. "A person
suddenly can't remember anything. Perhaps years later memory returns,
but there is a gap. Why?"
He smiled at me triumphantly. Sarah Fish nodded sagely.
"Because...." Golfin lifted his left arm with a flourish and inspected
his watch. "One hour and three minutes," he said quietly. Then,
"That was the question I asked myself. Why? Unfortunately amnesia is
rather rare. The few genuine cases didn't give me enough opportunity
to find the answer. I did, however, arrive at several theories about
it. And finally I came to the conclusion that amnesia is part of a
larger field. I expanded my research to include other phenomena
such as prophetic dreams. I was sure I was on the right track, but
unfortunately it was impossible to study a person in the process of
having a prophetic dream."
"I can see that," I said sympathetically.
"Exactly," Golfin said, blinking up at me. "However, I asked myself,
'Of the several theories, wouldn't the one that also accounts for
prophetic dreams be the more probable one?' And of course it's well
known that the more a theory explains, the more probable it is of being
true."
"Not always," I ventured.
He pondered this, then looked at his watch again. "Fifty-three
minutes," he said.