"Yes, and it not only affected my body, but likewise my mind, for it is
only in a dim, uncertain way that I remember being taken on a voyage of
several weeks' duration, and then finding myself in a strange-looking
hospital. There I remained for two months, and was then transferred to
an insane asylum."

"An insane asylum! Colonel Stanton, how you must have suffered!" cried
Mrs. Ruthven sympathetically.

"That was not the worst of it, madam. At the asylum I was treated most
brutally by a good-for-nothing physician, who did his best to pry into
my family affairs."

"And who was that physician, Colonel Stanton? Excuse my curiosity, but I
have a strong motive for wanting to know."

"He was a tall, wicked-looking fellow, who went by the name of
Mackenzie, although I have since learned that his real name is Mackwell
or Mackey."

"Dr. Mackey! He has been here."

"Here?"

"Exactly, and he claims Jack as his son!"

"The vile impostor!" cried the wounded officer wrathfully. "He is a
villain to his very finger tips. It is to him that I owe my long term in
the insane asylum. Where is he now?"

"That I cannot tell you. I refused to give Jack up, for I did not like
the looks of the man, and moreover Jack did not wish to go with him. I
told him he would have to prove his claim at court."

"That was right. If I can get my hands on him, I will either shoot him
or place him behind the bars."

"He certainly deserves arrest for plotting to take Jack."

"I presume he is scheming to obtain the property which is rightfully
mine. During my lucid intervals at the asylum he got me to tell him my
story. There was property in England coming to me, and also an estate in
Virginia coming to my wife. The trip on the ocean was taken to obtain
the property coming to Laura. He drew from me all the details he could,
and then drugged me, so that for a long time I knew scarcely anything of
what happened. When I regained my own mind, I learned that he had left
the asylum several weeks before, and departed for parts unknown."

"And were you kept at the asylum?"

"I was, for years, for this rascal had put me on the books as being
incurable, and subject to attacks of great violence."

"Of course he did this to obtain possession of the property."

"Undoubtedly."

"It is strange he did not put in an appearance before."

"You must remember he knew no more than I about the exact fate of the
_Nautilus_. How he found out the vessel was wrecked