"Come in here, will you? I'm up against a funny proposition. Mr. Houston doesn't seem to be able to remember who he is." "Ah!" Then came the sound of heavy steps, and Barry glanced toward the door, to see framed there the gigantic form of a grinning, bearded man, his long arms hanging with the looseness of tremendous strength, his gray eyes gleaming with twinkling interest, his whole being and build that of a great, good-humored, eccentric giant. His beard was splotched with gray, as was the hair which hung in short, unbarbered strands about his ears. But the hint of age was nullified by the cocky angle of the blue-knit cap upon his head, the blazing red of his double-breasted pearl-buttoned shirt, the flexible freedom of his muscles as he strode within. Beside him trotted a great gray cross-breed dog, which betokened collie and timber wolf, and which progressed step by step at his master's knee. Close to the bed they came, the great form bending, the twinkling, sharp eyes boring into those of Houston, until the younger man gave up the contest and turned his head,--to look once more upon the form of the girl, waiting wonderingly in the doorway. Then the voice came, rumbling, yet pleasant: "He no remember, eh?" "No. I know him all right. It's Barry Houston--I've been expecting him to drop in most any day. Of course, I haven't seen him since he was a kid out here with his father--but that doesn't make any difference. The family resemblance is there--he's got his father's eyes and mouth and nose, and his voice. But I can't get him to remember it. He can't recall anything about his fall, or his name or business. I guess the accident--" "Eet is the--" Ba'tiste was waving one hand vaguely, then placing a finger to his forehead, in a vain struggle for a word. "Eet is the--what-you-say--" "Amnesia." The answer had come quietly from the girl. Ba'tiste turned excitedly. "Ah, _oui_! Eet is the amnesia. Many time I have seen it--" he waved a hand--"across the way, _ne c'est pas_? Eet is when the mind he will no work--what you say--he will not stick on the job. See--" he gesticulated now with both hands--"eet is like a wall. I see eet with the shell shock. Eet is all the same. The wall is knock down--eet will not hold together. Blooey--" he waved his hands--"the man he no longer remember!"