fury, he began by the dim
light to rummage in the drawers of the desk for such loose coin or
valuables as, in the perfect security of the ranch, were often left
unguarded. Suddenly he heard a heavy footstep on the threshold, and
turned.

An awful vision--a recollection, so unexpected, so ghostlike in that
weird light that he thought he was losing his senses--stood before him.
It moved forwards with staring eyeballs and white and open lips from
which a horrible inarticulate sound issued that was the speech of no
living man! With a single desperate, almost superhuman effort Stephen
Forsyth bounded aside, leaped from the window, and ran like a madman
from the house. Then the apparition trembled, collapsed, and sank in an
undistinguishable heap to the ground.

When Josephine Forsyth returned an hour later with her mill foreman, she
was startled to find her helpless patient in a fit on the floor of her
room. With the assistance of her now converted and penitent employee,
she had the unfortunate man conveyed to his room--but not until she had
thoughtfully rearranged the disorder of her desk and closed the open
drawers without attracting Dick Shipley's attention. In the morning,
hearing that the patient was still in the semiconscious exhaustion of
his late attack, but without seeing him, she sent for Dr. Duchesne. The
doctor arrived while she was absent at the mill, where, after a careful
examination of his patient, he sought her with some little excitement.

"Well?" she said, with eager gravity.

"Well, it looks as if your wish would be gratified. Your friend has
had an epileptic fit, but the physical shock has started his mental
machinery again. He has recovered his faculties; his memory is
returning: he thinks and speaks coherently; he is as sane as you and I."

"And"--said Josephine, questioning the doctor's knitted eyebrows.

"I am not yet sure whether it was the result of some shock he doesn't
remember; or an irritation of the brain, which would indicate that the
operation had not been successful and that there was still some physical
pressure or obstruction there--in which case he would be subject to
these attacks all his life."

"Do you think his reason came before the fit or after?" asked the girl,
anxiously.

"I couldn't say. Had anything happened?"

"I was away, and found him on the floor on my return," she answered,
half uneasily. After a pause she said, "Then he has told you his name
and all about hims