so he fled , lurching along beside the board fence as fast as he could , and dirty gertie 's voice chased him like a mocking ghost : she left you a little message ... her kidneys by way of my kidneys ... a little message , normie ... here it comes ... then one of those skips happened , a short one , the stone of his mind striking the flat surface of reality and flying up and off it again , and when he came back into himself , some little length of time-maybe as short as fifteen seconds , maybe as long as forty-five-had passed .