e, I know."

"Ha!" exclaimed the Baron, growing interested despite himself.

"And the most remarkable thing of all is that up till this day I haven't
the very vaguest notion what my real name is."

"Zo?" said the Baron. "Bot vy should they change it?"

"There you've laid your finger on the mystery, Baron. Why? Heaven knows: I
wish I did!"

The Baron looked at him with undisguised interest.

"Strange!" he said, thoughtfully.

"Damnably strange. I found myself compelled to live in an asylum and
answer to a new name, and really, don't you know, under the circumstances
I could give no very valid reason for getting out. I seemed to have
blossomed there like one of the asylum plants. I couldn't possibly have
been more identified with the place. Besides, I'm free to confess that for
some time my reason, taking it all in all, wasn't particularly valid on
any point. By George, I had a funny time! Ha, ha, ha!"

His mirth was so infectious that the Baron raised his voice in a hearty
"Ha, ha!" and then stopped abruptly, and said cautiously, "Haf a care,
Bonker, zey may hear!"

"However, Baron," Mr Bunker continued, "out I was determined to get, and
out I came in the manner of which perhaps my friend Escott has already
informed you."

The Baron grinned and nodded.

"I came up to town, and on my very first evening I had the good fortune to
meet the Baron Rudolph von Blitzenberg--as perhaps you may remember. In my
own defence, Baron, I may fairly plead that since I could remember nothing
about my past career, I was entitled to supply the details from my
imagination. After all, I have no proof that some of my stories may not
have been correct. I used this privilege freely in Clankwood, and, in a
word, since I couldn't tell the truth if I wanted to, I quenched the
desire."

"You hombog!" said the Baron, not without a note of admiration.

"I was, and I gloried in it. Baron, if you ever want to know how ample a
thing life can be, become a certified lunatic! You are quite irresponsible
for your debts, your crimes, and, not least, your words. It certainly
enlarges one's horizon. All this time, I may say, I was racking my
brains--which, by the way, have been steadily growing saner in other
matters--for some recollections of my previous whereabouts, my career, if I
had any, and, above all, of my name."

"Can you remember nozing?"

"I can remember a large country house which I think belonged to me, but in
what part of the co