"It was the king of the cannibal islands!" exclaimed one of the other patients with a silly laugh. "He came to get me to enter into an alliance with him. I'm Lord Nelson, you know, and he wanted my fleet of ships to make war on the Queen of Fairy Land. But I refused. I am going to capture the Pyramids!" and the man began capering about like a child, singing nursery rhymes.
"Come, 'Lord Nelson,' you must get in line. This is dress parade," the attendant said.
But "Lord Nelson," as the insane man imagined himself to be, was not going to be coerced so easily. He started to run, and the keeper took after him. It was several minutes before "Lord Nelson" was caught, and, by that time, the guard had forgotten about Frank, and made no further inquiries. The patients resumed their march.
Frank, hurrying through the woods, felt himself in a tumult of doubts and fears. He wondered if he had done right, and what would be the outcome of the interview in the summer house. So much might depend on it, yet so little might come of it.
"I am sure I'm right," the boy murmured, as he went to where he had left his canoe. "If he only will recognize me! Oh! if he only will! But it is so many years!"
He reached his boat, and paddled up stream, thinking it best to hide, in case there might be a search made for him.
Frank remained in the seclusion of the woods, near the stream until dark. He still had some lunch left, and he ate that, meanwhile planning what he would say at the interview with the patient from the sanitarium.
"I must get him away from here," Frank thought. "Perhaps there may be a means of curing him, and then he can tell me everything connected with the secret. Oh! if he only could!"
How long the hours seemed while he waited! He thought ten o'clock would never come, but at last, looking at his watch by the light of a match, he saw it lacked but thirty minutes of that time. "I'll start," he said to himself. "He may be there a little ahead of me."
Frank reached the edge of the woods, where they marked the beginning of the sanitarium grounds. From there he took a cautious look. There seemed to be no one in sight, and he quickly ran across the open space to the summer house. This was a vine-covered arbor, situated at the back of the institution. Inside was a circular bench running all around, and it was a favorite place of such patients as were well enough to be allowed to roam about at will.