Van Dusen, who had been showing signs of restlessness, now interrupted. "I have a professional reputation at stake," he declared, a little grimly. "I quite understand that you two lovers are perfectly happy in being thus reunited again. But there still remains a duty to perform. I must catch Garnet. Please, Miss Marion, tell me where he has gone, what his intentions are." "He is off on a mission of mercy," Ethel replied. "He has gone to get a boat to come back here for me." She explained in detail concerning the physician's project. "I expect him back at any minute," she concluded. "If you folks will sit down and wait patiently, your quarry will come to you." Van Dusen asked some further questions, which the girl answered frankly, to all appearance. The detective was convinced that he had, as she suggested, only to remain in waiting at the shack, to make sure of capturing his man within a few hours. He dismissed his anxiety concerning Garnet, and for the gratification of his curiosity, begged for a full narrative of the events that had happened after Ethel regained consciousness. The girl did not demur, but told the whole story of her dreadful experiences. The three men sat spellbound as they listened to her dramatic recital. They were thrilled by that climax when in the desolate hut the physician at last made his full confession to the girl. As Ethel came to the end of her account, Van Dusen addressed Roy with a note of self-gratulation in his voice. "Now, what do you think, Roy Morton? You remember that night on _The Hialdo_ when I gave you my opinion of this affair? You remember, I said that such cases are rare, but that in the end we should find this whole affair to be the work of a drug-crazed man, dominated by a fixed idea--that he must steal this young lady away, and, by force if necessary, make her a sharer with him in a drug orgy. I told you, too, that I did not believe her life or person in any danger whatever, unless through accident. And there's another point: This Doctor Garnet should go to a mad-house, rather than to prison and the electric chair." The day was drawing to a close now, with the sun hardly an hour high above the trees that lined the western horizon. Uncle Ichabod declared that Garnet should have sent help long before, if he had safely reached Portsmouth. The fisherman gave it as his opinion that the physician must have met with serious trouble on the way, or that he must have deliberately deserted Miss Marion. He further suggested that he and the detective should leave Roy and Ethel for an hour or two, in order to search along the shore for a possible trace of the missing man. But he amended this plan a moment later by advising that Roy should take the girl in the skiff and make sail for the yacht, which was vaguely visible at anchor some miles away. Afterward, a seaman could bring the skiff back for himself and Van Dusen.