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Had the sane restrained the insane, or was it the other way around?
Weill set his recorder on the floor and jumped up beside him, trying to haul
him back into his seat.
"For God's sake, man! Sit down and shut up!" he hissed.
Chalmers shook off his hand. "No, I won't shut up! This is the only way to
settle this, once and for all.
And when my sanity's been vindicated, I'm going to sue this fellow...."
Whitburn started to make some retort, then stopped short. After a moment, he
smiled nastily.
"Do I understand, Doctor Chalmers, that you would be willing to submit to
psychiatric examination?" he asked.
"Don't agree; you're putting your foot in a trap!" Weill told him urgently.
"Of course, I agree, as long as the examination is conducted by a properly
qualified psychiatrist."
"How about Doctor Hauserman at Northern State Mental Hospital?" Whitburn asked
quickly. "Would you agree to an examination by him?"
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"Excellent!" Fitch exclaimed. "One of the best men in the field. I'd accept
his opinion unreservedly."
Weill started to object again; Chalmers cut him off. "Doctor Hauserman will be
quite satisfactory to me.
The only question is, would he be available?"
"I think he would," Dacre said, glancing at his watch. "I wonder if he could
be reached now." He got to his feet. "Telephone in your outer office, Doctor
Whitburn? Fine. If you gentlemen will excuse me...."
It was a good fifteen minutes before he returned, smiling.
"Well, gentlemen, it's all arranged," he said. "Doctor Hauserman is
quite willing to examine Doctor
Chalmers with the latter's consent, of course."
"He'll have it. In writing, if he wishes."
"Yes, I assured him on that point. He'll be here about noon tomorrow it's a
hundred and fifty miles from the hospital, but the doctor flies his own
plane and the examination can start at two in the afternoon. He seems familiar
with the facilities of the psychology department, here; I assured him that
they were at his disposal. Will that be satisfactory to you, Doctor Chalmers?"
"I have a class at that time, but one of the instructors can take it over if
holding classes will be possible around here tomorrow," he said. "Now, if you
gentlemen will pardon me, I think I'll go home and get some sleep."
Weill came up to the apartment with him. He mixed a couple of drinks and they
went into the living room with them.
"Just in case you don't know what you've gotten yourself into," Weill said,
"this Hauserman isn't any ordinary couch-pilot; he's the state
psychiatrist. If he gets the idea you aren't sane, he can commit you to a
hospital, and I'll bet that's exactly what Whitburn had in mind when he
suggested him. And I don't trust this man Dacre. I thought he was on our side,
at the start, but that was before your friends got into the act." He frowned
into his drink. "And I don't like the way that Intelligence major was acting,
toward the last. If he thinks you know something you are not supposed to, a
mental hospital may be his idea of a good place to put you away."
"You don't think this man Hauserman would allow himself to be influenced ...?
No. You just don't think
I'm sane. Do you?"
"I know what Hauserman'll think. He'll think this future history business is a
classical case of systematized schizoid delusion. I wish I'd never gotten into
this case. I wish I'd never even heard of you! And another thing; in case you
get past Hauserman all right, you can forget about that damage-suit bluff of
mine. You would not stand a chance with it in court."
"In spite of what happened to Khalid?"
"After tomorrow, I won't stay in the same room with anybody who even mentions
that name to me. Well, win or lose, it'll be over tomorrow and then I can
leave here."
"Did you tell me you were going to Reno?" Chalmers asked. "Don't do it.
You remember Whitburn mentioning how I spoke about an explosion there? It
happened just a couple of days after the murder of
Khalid. There was will be a trainload of high explosives in the
railroad yard; it'll be the biggest non-nuclear explosion since the
Mont Blanc blew up in Halifax harbor in World War One...."
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