"The man I treated was a Kedaki."
"Yes?"
"Yes."
"You speak in the past tense," Gawroi said. The words came automatically. He was thinking: you fool, Gawroi. That was a mistake. A bad mistake. Naturally, if Rhodes was your friend Rhodes would have contacted you after his accident. How can you think it was amnesia, when total amnesia is such a rare thing? See? See the Arcturan doctor? He's suspicious now. Does that mean the man was an Earthman?
"I treated him," Quotis said. "He's gone now."
"Treatment successful, doctor? But that is wonderful. I heard the man was severely burned. Do you have his picture?"
"No," said Quotis promptly.
"Could you have been mistaken?"
"About what?"
"About this man's planetality? Tell me, doctor, could he have been an Earthman?"