"The exposure was too much for you."
"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?"