"Have you heard no names that were familiar to you--?"
"Scores of them; but none with which I could connect myself."
"And did you think I could find out for you what you yourself have not
been able to discover?"
"I didn't know but what you might have means."
"What means could I have? As far as I've ever heard, the only way of
tracing a lost man is through the police--with detectives--and
publicity--descriptions in the papers--photographs thrown on
screens--that sort of thing. I don't think there's any other way."
I took perhaps two minutes, perhaps three, to ponder these
possibilities. In the end they seemed to magnify my misfortune.
"Then, sir, that's all you can do for me?"
"Remember that I should be doing a great deal if I got you to put
yourself under Doctor Glegg."
"In the free psychopathic ward of a sanitarium for diseases of the
brain--to be watched."
"To be under observation. There's a difference."
"All the observation in the world wouldn't tell Doctor Glegg more than
I'm telling you now."
"Oh yes, it would. It would tell him--it would tell me--you must excuse
me, you know--but the situation obliges me to speak frankly--it would
tell him--it would tell me--whether or not your story is a true one."
"So you don't believe me?"
"How can I believe you on the strength of this one interview?"
"But how could I convince you in a dozen interviews?"
"You couldn't. Nothing would convince me but something in the way of
outside proof--or Doctor Glegg's report."