t any smell of liquor on him, and he moved when Mark touched him.
Mark saw that something serious was the matter, and he tried to get the
man into his sailboat. But Mark didn't weigh more than a hundred and
twenty pounds, and this man was so big and so heavily built that he had
to give it up.

"So, leaving the man in it, he tied the small boat to the stern of his,
and made a quick run for home. He took the man into his cabin and sent
for the doctor. The doctor examined the man carefully and found a big
gash in his head that looked as though it had been made with a hatchet.
He saw it hadn't reached a vital point, though, so he sewed it up and
left some medicine, promising to come again the next day.

"Mark said that the doctor had no sooner gone than the man began to rave
and toss about. After a while he became violent, and Mark, being a small
man as I have said, had to call in some of the neighbors to hold him
down. He seemed to imagine that he was in a fight and that a crowd was
piling on him. And he kept talking about 'the gold' and 'the chest,' and
vowing that they would never get it away from him."

A murmur ran around the listening circle.

"Mark didn't pay much attention to what he said," resumed Mr. Lee,
"because he thought it was only the raving of a crazy man.

"Mark and the neighbors searched his clothes and found some papers that
showed them the man's name was Montgomery. They found out, too, that he
lived in a place on the coast of Canada. They wrote to his folks right
away, and a couple of men came down to take him home as soon as he was
able to travel.

"That wasn't for a good while, though, for Montgomery had come down with
an attack of brain fever that kept him on his back for weeks. He got
over that at last, but his mind wasn't right. He wasn't violent any
longer but was melancholy. Went around all the time in a daze. Couldn't
get anything out of him, except that he kept muttering to himself about
'the gold.' Sometimes, though, he'd speak of debts that seemed to worry
him. He couldn't carry on any connected conversation, and he'd get so
excited when any one tried to question him, that the doctor said they
must let him alone.

"He was taken away as soon as he was strong enough, and that's the last
Mark ever saw of him. A little while later, the man's wife sent a little
money to Mark to cover his expenses in caring for her husband, and she
said in her letter that he was no better. And from what you