"What is your home town?" asked Watson, interrupting King.
"Wilford Springs. I was going to tell you about a man by the name of Babcock who used to own the controlling interest in a bank at Zala. (Watson gave a start and his face whitened.) This man Babcock was in some sort of a deal with a banker in Wilford Springs. One night the Wilford Springs banker, whose name is Jim Stover, went to Zala and had a conference with Babcock. The next day Babcock turned the bank over to him. That afternoon Babcock was injured in an automobile accident, and that night his cashier disappeared." (The bookkeeper became very nervous. He got up, poked the fire and then came back to his desk and sat down. He clasped his hands together to hold them from shaking.)
"Did Babcock recover from the accident?"
"Not fully. He suffers a great deal from a pain in his head at times, and he has no memory of anything that happened before the accident in which he was injured."
"You say he can't remember anything that happened before he was injured?"
"No, not a thing."
"Can he remember things that have happened since he was hurt?"
"Yes, that is the strange part about his condition. He can remember everything that has transpired since he was injured as well as the average person."
"Very strange indeed," Watson commented.
"When his daughter Ruth inquired about the business Stover informed her that he had purchased her father's bank stock. When she asked about the money she was told by Stover that her father had owed him an amount of money equal to the stock and he had taken it to help her father out."