He gulped as he realized what the tenor of his thinking meant. He said plaintively, "You mean we'll have to wait till midnight before we dare go to the house?"
She nodded.
Then, as one person they turned and looked down at the Picaroon. It would be unfair to keep the poor lunatic tied up the way he was for at least fourteen more hours...
The Picaroon was mumbling to himself, "You are who you are, if you think you are..."
Blinking thoughtfully, Comstock turned to Pat and said, "You know, that's a very interesting question. I'd like to think about it for a while."
"While you're thinking about it, darling, devote a little of your brain power to figuring out where we're going to get food and water to last us till midnight..."
The madman's words pounded at Comstock's brain washing away the reality of what the girl had said. "But how do you know you are?" That was a very interesting question.
Still squatting on his heels, Comstock looked unseeingly off into the distance and wondered what in the name of The Grandfather the answer to the lunatic's question could be.
He was something or someone called Comstock, he was sure of that. But how could he know he was Comstock, for sure, that is?
He was so engrossed that he did not even hear the Picaroon's mad giggle as the man said to Pat, "See ... see what my little question did to him? That's what happened to the first four doctors who examined me!" He laughed again. "That was when the Fathers decided that I was a madman and that my only cure was to become a criminal."