But I can't get him to
remember it. He can't recall anything about his fall, or his name or
business. I guess the accident--"

"Eet is the--" Ba'tiste was waving one hand vaguely, then placing a
finger to his forehead, in a vain struggle for a word. "Eet is
the--what-you-say--"

"Amnesia." The answer had come quietly from the girl. Ba'tiste turned
excitedly.

"Ah, _oui_! Eet is the amnesia. Many time I have seen it--" he waved
a hand--"across the way, _ne c'est pas_? Eet is when the mind he will
no work--what you say--he will not stick on the job. See--" he
gesticulated now with both hands--"eet is like a wall. I see eet with
the shell shock. Eet is all the same. The wall is knock down--eet
will not hold together. Blooey--" he waved his hands--"the man he no
longer remember!"

This time the stare in Barry Houston's eyes was genuine. To hear a
girl of the mountains name a particular form of mental ailment, and
then to further listen to that ailment described in its symptoms by a
grinning, bearded giant of the woods was a bit past the comprehension
of the injured man. He had half expected the girl to say "them" and
"that there", though the trimness of her dress, the smoothness of her
small, well-shod feet, the air of refinement which spoke even before
her lips had uttered a word should have told him differently. As for
the giant, Ba'tiste, with his outlandish clothing, his corduroy
trousers and high-laced, hob-nailed boots, his fawning, half-breed dog,
his blazing shirt and kippy little knit cap, the surprise was all the
greater. But that surprise, it seemed, did not extend to the other
listener. Thayer had bobbed his head as though in deference to an
authority. When he spoke, Barry thought that he discerned a tone of
enthusiasm, of hope:

"Do they ever get over it?"

"Sometime, yes. Sometime--no. Eet all depend."

"Then there isn't any time limit on a thing like this."

"No. Sometime a year--sometime a week--sometime never. It all depend.
Sometime he get a shock--something happen quick, sudden--blooey--he
come back, he say 'where am I', and he be back again, same like he was
before!" Ba'tiste gesticulated vigorously. Thayer moved toward the
door.

"Then I guess there's nothing more for me to do, except to drop in
every few days and see how he's getting along. You'll take good care
of him?"

"Ah, _oui_."

"Good. Want to walk a piece down the road--with me, Medaine?"

"Of cours