After a moment the door opened and there came in Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, The Thinking Machine. He squinted inquiringly at Hatch, and Hatch waved his head toward Curtis.
"Dear me, dear me," exclaimed The Thinking Machine.
He leaned over the prostrate figure a moment, then disappeared into another room, returning with a hypodermic. After a few anxious minutes Curtis sat up straight. He stared at the two men with unseeing eyes, and in them was unutterable terror.
"_I saw her! I saw her!_" he screamed. "_There was a dagger in her heart. Marguerite!_"
Again he fell back unconscious. The Thinking Machine squinted at Hatch.
"The man's got delirium tremens," he snapped impatiently.
III.
For fifteen minutes Hatch silently looked on as The Thinking Machine worked over the unconscious man. Once or twice Curtis moved uneasily and moaned slightly. Hatch had started to explain the situation to The Thinking Machine, but the irascible scientist glared at him and the reporter became silent. After ten or fifteen minutes The Thinking Machine turned to Hatch more genially.
"He'll be all right in a little while now," he said. "What is it?"
"Well, it's a murder," Hatch began. "Marguerite Melrose, an actress, was stabbed through the heart last night, and----"