I was with him then. Somehow, all at once, I knew he was right. Suddenly I had all the old confidence and trust in his genius that I had had years before when I'd worked with him so closely.
The silence in the room then was paralyzing, a thick binding tension. The nine professors stood up as if sitting now was untenable. Professors of English literature, Biology, Astronomy, Music, Medicine, Psychiatry, History, Physical Education, Religion. They stood there waiting for Marsten to check their written thoughts on the cards.
Marsten spread them out like a hand of bridge and looked at them. His muscles jerked once, as from a galvanic reflex, like a man suddenly touched with a high-tension wire.
He cried out, as from deep and wracking mental pain. The sound hit into the room's silence like metal into flesh. He dropped the cards abruptly and they spilled over the table. He stared at the floor between the table and the nine men facing him.
His voice sounded far away, muffled. "Gentlemen, I've—failed. I've—failed—miserably!"
He swayed. I ran around the table and caught him to stop his falling. His muscles quivered under my hands.
He pushed me away. His eyes were hot and a little wild. Then he stood up straight, like an old soldier at bay.
"I'm sorry you have had your valuable time imposed upon so inexcusably. No need—no need now, I assure you, even to open the sealed envelope. I missed—missed in every case except that of Professor Adler. My success with him I attribute entirely to chance."
He took a step backward and whispered, "Goodnight, gentlemen. Goodnight and—goodbye."
I called out, but he went on out the door. I ran after him into the hall, but he had ducked out a side door. I followed him across the darkening campus. But his car roared away before I could reach him. I did not have a car so I could not follow.