“I ... I ... er ... as a psychiatrist ... I cannot afford to have personal opinions, Dr. Sterling.”
“Aw, for heaven’s sake! What d’y’think?”
Dr. Hoffbein’s little pigeon breast heaved. His eyes had completely lost their whites.
“I ... I ... I ... think,” he hesitated, and Bear cut in—
“Don’t be so damn slow about it!”
At that Hoffbein flared.
“It is my impression that action ... drastic ... and terrible should be quickly taken to apprehend this dangerous man ... and that action should come through the psychiatric service.”
At last Bear Sterling caught the insinuations which hovered thunderously over the room. He turned too purple for speech, so Dr. Harrison laid him upon a sofa and murmured:
“Remember your heart, old timer. Remember your heart. Nothing to be alarmed about. ‘Just a symptom of your disease.’”
And then he laughed heartily, and Dr. Otto Hoffbein ducked like a beaten boxer. “A symptom of your disease” is a psychiatric term.