There was a stately exodus, Salzer being the last to leave.
I heard Kerman say, “Is there no one else on this floor?”
“Not at the moment,” Salzer said. “We have had several interesting cures recently. Perhaps you would like to see our files?”
The voices drifted away, and Bland closed the door. He grinned at me.
“Didn’t work, did it, baby? I told you : just a nut along with a lotta other nuts.”
It wasn’t easy to look like a disappointed man, but I somehow managed it.
V
Salzer was talking sense when he had said visitors excited his patients. The effect on Hopper was obvious, although it wasn’t until Bland brought in the lunch-trays that he showed sighs of blowing up.
When Salzer and the visitors had gone. Hopper lay still, staring up at the ceiling, a heavy scowl on his face. He remained like that until lunch-time, and paid no attention to any remark I made, so I left him alone. I had plenty to think about anyway, and I wasn’t pining for his society. But when Bland set the tray on the night table, he suddenly lashed out, sending the tray flying across the room to land with a crash and a mess on the floor.
He sat up, and the look of him brought me out in goose pimples. His face altered so I scarcely recognized him. It grew thinner, older and lined. There was a ferocious, trapped look in his eyes you see in the eves of the fiercer beasts in the zoo. And the way Bland skipped out of his reach was as quick as the hop of a frog.