“I ... I ... counted-the-tablets ... when-I-came-on ... duty ... and-when-I-went-off. They ... checked...!”
“Perhaps she didn’t take any to throw you off the track. Had you thought of...?’”
The terror in her eyes and voice made Matt shiver.
“No...!”
The word was a wail.
He changed his tactics immediately.
“That’s not likely, though. When the urge is ‘on’, nothing ... not even murder ... can stop it.”
He had risen while he was talking and opened the door into the corridor. Ten minutes had passed. Dr. MacArthur entered. Higgins said to the girl:
“You have nothing more to worry about. Dr. MacArthur and Miss Carruthers will stand behind you ... till you graduate!”
Then he went out of the Administration Building, down the main corridor of the hospital. The corridor was nearly empty. In the distance five probationers, with new text books under their arms, were coming toward him, but they were the only people in sight. The wards had settled down for the afternoon, the white nurses were off duty, and two student nurses on each floor and the head nurse of each building were on duty. The internes and resident were doing lab or case studies.