regarding his strange absence? What had become
of that cunning thief and the diamonds? were questions which suggested
themselves to him.

But he simply asked:

"When did you return to New York?"

"About a week ago," the physician replied. "I was very sorry to have to
leave you as I did, but the summons to my wife was imperative, and of
course my duty was by her side."

A sarcastic smile curled Ray's lips at this last remark.

"I am only surprised that you returned at all," he quietly responded.

"Why?" inquired the physician, with some astonishment.

"It is not always safe, you know," Ray answered, looking him straight in
the eye, "for one who has aided and abetted a stupendous robbery to
appear so soon upon the scene of his depredations."

Doctor Wesselhoff's face fell.

He had hoped that, when the young man should recover, all signs of his
peculiar mania would disappear; but this did not seem much like it, and
he began to fear the case might prove a very obstinate one.

"I think you must rest now," he remarked, evading the subject; "you have
talked long enough this time."

"Perhaps I have, but I do not intend to rest until I have come to some
definite understanding regarding my relations with you," Ray responded,
resolutely.

"Well, then, what do you mean by a definite understanding?" the physician
asked, thinking it might be as well to humor him a little.

"I want to know how far you are concerned in this plot to keep me a
prisoner here? I want to know in what way you are connected with that
woman who called herself Mrs. Vanderbeck, and who enticed me here with
valuable diamonds, only to steal them from me? I believe I am in the
power of a gang of thieves, and though I cannot reconcile it with what I
had heard of you previously, that you must be associated in some way with
them."

Ray had spoken rapidly, and with an air and tone of stern command, which
puzzled while it impressed the doctor.

"You bring a very serious charge against me, my young friend," he gravely
remarked, but without betraying the slightest resentment; "but perhaps if
you will tell me your side of the story I shall understand you better,
and then I will explain my authority for detaining you here."

Doctor Wesselhoff was strangely attracted toward his patient. He did not
seem at all like an insane person, except upon that one subject, and he
would not have regarded that as a mania if he had not been assured of it
by Mrs. Walton