Guy laughed. "This is Ely," he answered.
"Ely?" repeated the Captain incredulously.
"Yes, Ely," answered Guy. "Don't you remember stopping at Cambridge and going with me to the refreshment room for a cup of coffee to keep you awake?"
"Stopping at Cambridge," repeated Marven more incredulously than before.
"It is a fact," answered Guy, and he added, "I hope you will forgive me having given you so practical an exposition of the fact that there is something in hypnotism after all."
Captain Marven did not answer immediately. He seemed to be struggling for recollection. "I have no remembrance of that, but——" By an instinctive gesture his hand sought the case beneath his coat. His face lightened as he felt it there. "I've been dreaming, nevertheless," he said. "I seem to remember that something in my charge was in your possession, and that although I struggled to regain possession of it I could not do so."
"I suppose it was the last impulse of your will to combat the effort I was making to gain control of it," remarked Guy, secretly congratulating himself that he had been in time to prevent Marven's complete awakening before the case had been returned to him.
"No doubt that is the explanation," replied Marven, rising and throwing open the carriage door. He stepped on to the platform.
"Are you not going to stretch your legs, Hora?" he asked. "We have twenty minutes here."
Guy joined him, and they paced the platform together. They chatted on indifferent topics. Then Captain Marven suddenly sprang a personal question.