It was now very late, but I could not sleep. My mind was active, though I found to my surprise that it was more nearly calm than it had been for days. I knew that I ought to sleep, but I seemed on track of discovery. It had taken me hours of unremitting labour to get where I was,--monotonous but interesting labour--and it would likely take me hours more to advance a single step farther.
A sudden idea presented itself. What if the name was a very unusual name, one, in fact, that I had never heard, or seen written, except as the name of this Doctor? This thought included other thoughts--one was the idea of a written name. I had been following but one line of approach, while there were two,--sound and form. I had not considered the written approach, but now I saw the importance of that process. Another thought was, whether it would help me for the name to be not merely unusual, but entirely unknown. I could not decide this question. I saw reasons for and against. If it was an utterly unknown name, except as applied to the Doctor, I might never recover it; I might continue to roll names and names through my brain for years without result, if my brain could bear such thought for so long. I pictured in fancy an old man who had forgotten in time his own name, and had accepted another, wasting, and having wasted, the years of his life in hunting a word impossible and valueless. But I fought this fear and put it to sleep. The uncommon name would cause me to reject all common names, perhaps at first presentation; my attention would be concentrated on peculiar sounds and forms. If my mind were now in condition to respond to the name, I might get it very soon.
In debating this point, I suppose that I lost sight of my objective, for I sank to sleep.
At daylight I was awake. My mind held fast the results of the night's work. I wrote as follows:--
C G K.... P
Before we marched I had arranged in groups the names that impressed me. I had C without any following.
For G, I had Gayle, or Gail.
For K, Kame, Kames, Kean, Key, Kinney, Knight.
For P, only Payne.
We marched. My head was full of my list of names. I knew them without looking at what I had written.