SUE--How can you say that? You know how gentle and sane he is with me--just like he used to be in the old days. DOCTOR--You’re his last connecting link with things as they are--but that can’t last. On the other hand, I think that if we got him away from the sea, from this house, especially from this crazy cabin and the ship’s deck he had built up there--[_He nods upward._]--that perhaps---- SUE--[_With conviction._] No. It would kill him to leave it. DOCTOR--Eh, well, my dear, one thing you’ve got to realize: Your father and Nat must be separated somehow. Nat’s going to pieces. He’s lost his job, he moons about this house, he takes no interest in anything but this craziness. I’ll bet he doesn’t believe that schooner is lost any more than your father does. SUE--You mean he still hopes it may not be true. That’s only natural. He’s in San Francisco now tracing down the report again. He saw in the papers where the British freighter that found the derelict was in port again and he went to talk with the people on board. I’m hoping he’ll come back fully convinced, with the whole thing out of his mind. DOCTOR--[_Shaking his head--gravely._] I’ve watched him and talked with him---- Why, even your father seems to realize, in his twisted way, that he has a bad effect on Nat. SUE--Yes, as I’ve told you before, he hasn’t spoken to Nat alone since the schooner sailed a year ago. And Nat sneaks about trying to spy on him--and I have to be always on the watch to keep them apart---- It’s terrible. DOCTOR--You’ve got to persuade Nat to go away, Susan. SUE--He won’t heed me--but I was thinking that now Danny is coming back, I’d get him---- DOCTOR--There’s another thing. You can’t continue to play slave to these two after you’re married. SUE--[_Miserably._] We’ll have to wait a while longer---- DOCTOR--[_Roughly._] Rats! You can’t sacrifice any more of your life and Danny’s to mad dreams. SUE--[_Helplessly._] I don’t know---- [_Then brightening._] That’ll all be decided when the time comes. Just now it’s enough to know Danny’s alive and coming back. Read his letter, Doctor. You’ve been holding it in your hand all this time. DOCTOR--Yes, yes, let’s see. [_He takes the letter from the envelope._] SUE--Poor Danny! He’s been through terrible things. DOCTOR--Hmm! Rangoon. SUE--Yes, he’s still in the hospital there. You’ll see. DOCTOR--[_Reads the letter--grunts with astonishment--angrily._] By Gad! The damn scoundrels! SUE--[_Shuddering._] Yes, wasn’t it hideous--those awful men stabbing him and leaving him for dead in that out of the way native settlement! The natives nursed him back to life, have you got that far yet? And then he was laid up for four months there waiting for a vessel to touch and take him back to civilization. And then, think of it, getting the fever on top of all that and nearly dying in the hospital in Rangoon!