I didn't talk to the others. I went home. And I began to phone, trying to locate Marsten. I called every few minutes and I called the police and everyone who knew him. The police said they would put out a dragnet if he didn't show up within the next twenty-four hours. I had explained he was in great distress, that I was afraid of what he might do.
I didn't sleep well that night. There was no word about Marsten's whereabouts in the morning. I began to think that perhaps suicide was the only way out for him now. I doubted that he would be able to face the failure of that experiment he had planned for so long, and on which he had staked all of what remained of his reputation.
I managed to get three of the nine scientists to be with me when I went to the office at the university and opened the safe and took out that sealed envelope next morning. De Vaca, a small nervous man with constant flighty gestures, Morrison, biology professor, a solemn, bald little man, and Billingsley who had a jaw like a prizefighter, and was big and gruff, but brilliant.
They, too, were worried about Marsten's disappearance, considering his state of mind. Now we all wanted to know what that envelope contained. Maybe its contents would assist us in helping Marsten—if we found him.
After examining the contents of the sealed envelope, we sat around the table and no one said anything for what seemed a long time. Finally De Vaca said, "He failed all right. But it was a wonderful plan, and certainly we could no longer deny the existence of mental telepathy had this idea worked out as he planned it."
Morrison said, "But we must find Marsten before he kills himself. He should be institutionalized, now, his mental unbalance treated...."
The others agreed. They began to discuss where to begin the search for Marsten.
I thought about what we had found in that sealed envelope. Marsten had had a great idea all right. Although the professors had selected their own order of going into the testing room, Professor Marsten had arbitrarily numbered each of them from 1 to 9. Using the subjects which they taught instead of their names, he expected to prove mental telepathy. In the envelope he had left this list:
| 1. Thackeray——Professor of English Literature |
| 2. Evolution——Professor of Biology |
| 3. Lungs——Professor of Anatomy |
| 4. Elgar——Professor of Music |
| 5. Phenobarbital——Professor of Medicine |
| 6. Adler——Professor of Psychology |
| 7. Trotsky——Professor of Russian History |
| 8. Hockey——Professor in Physical Education |
| 9. Yuletide——Professor in Theology |