“Or did you come from New York?” another said; but still there was no answer but a feeble shake of the head. It was too evident that he understood very little of what was said, and could not answer even that little intelligently.
Several of the medical members of the Board went up to him and felt his pulse, examined the hue of his skin, raised the lids and looked searchingly into his eyes, and felt his scalp carefully for traces of an old injury, but could find none.
“Suppose that we see whether any of our flags will have an effect upon him to-day,” the chairman suggested; and turning to the house surgeon he added, “and invite the American consul to come in and see the result.”
The surgeon went after the consul, and when they entered the room, they were followed by an orderly, bearing an armful of folded flags. The consul was invited to take a chair, after replying to the chairman’s question that he was acquainted with the circumstances of the case; and the orderly was directed to unfold one of the flags and show it to the mysterious patient.
“Try the British flag first,” the chairman said; and the room was as quiet as death while the orderly shook out the flag, and held it close to John Doe’s face. But the feeble man paid no more attention to it than he had paid to the questions.
“Now the French flag,” the chairman ordered; and still John Doe did not raise his eyes from the floor.
“The American flag,” said the chairman. This was the test; and as the orderly held out his arm with the beautiful stars and stripes hanging over it, the members of the Board leaned forward eagerly to watch the result.
For a moment John Doe did not seem to see the flag. But presently his sunken eyes caught the brilliant red and white stripes, and instantly a change was noticed in his face. A look of semi-intelligence came over it that none present had seen there before. Leaning the cane between his knees, he stretched out one hand and drew the orderly closer to him, and with the other hand stroked the stripes as lovingly and gently as he might have stroked a kitten or the head of a pet child. His lips moved, and it was plain that he was trying to utter words that would not come. And the hush in the room became still deeper when after a few moments of this the feeble man drew the back of his hand across his eyes to wipe away the moisture.
“That will do, Mr. Orderly; you can take the flags away,” the chairman said; and every man in the room noticed that John Doe kept his eyes fixed upon the flag until it was folded and carried away.
“If this remarkable experiment has had the same effect upon you as upon me, gentlemen,” the chairman continued, “you have seen that the sight of an old friend has for a moment roused the slumbering faculties of this poor man’s brain. I have no longer any doubt that he is an American; and I should like to hear the American consul’s opinion of this strange case.”