I looked up and into her eyes, dark and bright and questioning as she stood still clutching her damp shawl. "I'm not so sure of that," I said. "But--Mr. Croft's condition is rather--peculiar. Whatever I do will require quiet--that I am alone with him for some time. I think if I can be left here with him for possibly an hour, I can bring him back." I paused abruptly. I had used the woman's former words almost. And I saw she noticed the fact, for a slight smile gathered on her faded lips. She nodded. "You'll bring him back," she said. "Mind you, doctor, th' trouble is with Mr. Jason's head, I've been thinking. 'Twas for that I've been telling myself I would come for you, if he forgot to come back some time, like I've been afraid he would." "You did quite right," I agreed. "But--the trouble is not with Mr. Croft's mind. In fact, Mrs. Goss, I believe he is a very learned man. How long have you known him, may I ask?" "Ever since he was a boy, except when he was travelin'," she returned. "He has traveled?" I took her up. "Yes, sir, a lot. Me an' my husband kept up th' place while he was gone." "I see," I said. "And now if you will let me try what I can do." "Yes, sir. I'll set out in th' hall," she agreed, and turned in her rapid putter from the room. Left alone, I took a chair, dragged it to the side of the couch, and studied my man. So far as I could judge, he was at least six feet tall, and correspondingly built. His hair was heavy, almost tawny, and, as I knew, his eyes were gray. The whole contour of his head and features showed what appeared to me remarkable intelligence and strength, the nose finely chiseled, the mouth well formed and firm, the chin unmistakably strong. That Croft was an unusual character I felt more and more as I sat there. His very condition, which, from what I had learned from the little old woman and his own notation on the margins of Ahmid's writings, I believed self-induced, would certainly indicate that. But my own years of study had taught me no little of hypnosis, suggestion, and the various phases of the subconscious mind. I had developed no little power with various patients, or "subjects," as a hypnotist calls them, who from time to time had submitted themselves to my control. Wherefore I felt that I knew about what to do to waken the sleeping objective mind of the man on the couch. I had asked for an hour, and the time had been granted. It behooved me to get to work.