"Doctor Fitch is taking an entirely proper attitude," Pottgeiter said,
"in pointing out that abnormal psychology is a specialized branch,
outside his own field. I wouldn't dream, myself, of trying to offer a
decisive opinion on some point of Roman, or Babylonian, history. Well,
if the question of Doctor Chalmers' sanity is at issue here, let's
consult somebody who specializes in insanity. I don't believe that
anybody here is qualified even to express an opinion on that subject,
Doctor Whitburn least of all."

Whitburn turned on him angrily. "Oh, shut up, you doddering old fool!"
he shouted. "Look; there's another of them!" he told the trustees.
"Another deadhead on the faculty that this Tenure Law keeps me from
getting rid of. He's as bad as Chalmers, himself. You just heard that
string of nonsense he was spouting. Why, his courses have been noted
among the students for years as snap courses in which nobody ever has
to do any work...."

Chalmers was on his feet again, thoroughly angry. Abuse of himself he
could take; talking that way about gentle, learned, old Pottgeiter
was something else.

"I think Doctor Pottgeiter's said the most reasonable thing I've heard
since I came in here," he declared. "If my sanity is to be questioned,
I insist that it be questioned by somebody qualified to do so."

[Illustration: 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.