"I have thought so all along. But what do you know of this?" "Colonel Stanton is here, Jack. He knows Dr. Mackey only too well." "So I supposed from what this fellow said." "To you?" "No, to St. John." "My dear Mrs. Ruthven, this is all a dreadful mistake," burst in the surgeon. "I do not know Colonel Stanton at all. I spoke of a Colonel Stanwood--quite a different person, I can assure you." "I do not believe you, Dr. Mackey," answered Mrs. Ruthven emphatically. "You are very hard upon me, madam." "I think I have a right to be hard upon you, sir. You have tried your best to rob me of my son." "But he shan't do it, mother," put in Jack warmly. "No, Jack, he'll never be able to do that--now," answered Mrs. Ruthven significantly. And then she added, "See to it, Ben, that he does not get away. I wish to speak to Jack in private." "He shan't git away from Old Ben, nohow," answered the faithful negro. Mrs. Ruthven led Jack into the parlor and closed the door carefully. "My boy, I have a great surprise for you," she began. "Do you think you can bear it?" "What surprise, mother?" he asked quickly. "Colonel Stanton is here, wounded. He has told me something of his past, and it concerns you." "Me?" "Yes, Jack. You are not Dr. Mackey's son at all, but the son of the colonel." "I am Colonel Stanton's son!" gasped our hero, hardly able to frame the words. "I knew you would be amazed. But it is true, as he has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt." "But--but----" Jack tried to go on, but words failed him. He the son of the colonel--the son of a Yankee officer? It was something of which he had never dreamed. Yet, even on the instant, he remembered how much the colonel had impressed him, and what a gentleman he had thought the officer. "I will tell you the story," went on Mrs. Ruthven, and did so. Jack was all attention, and when he learned the true depth of Dr. Mackey's villainy his eyes flashed fire. "Now I understand why he didn't wish to meet Colonel Stanton face to face," he said. "No wonder he is afraid." "Your father is sleeping now," continued Mrs. Ruthven. "He is improved, but still somewhat weak. You can go to him when he awakens. I think it will be best, for the present, to keep the fact of Dr. Mackey's capture a secret." "You are right, mother." The matter was talked over, and Dr. Mackey was later on taken to a garret room and tied fast to an old four-poster bedstead, a piece of furniture weighing considerably over a hundred pounds. Then Old Ben was placed at the door to watch him. Just before the colonel awoke Jack went in to see him. As our hero looked at that handsome face his heart beat rapidly. He bent over and kissed the colonel's forehead, and this awoke the wounded man. "Jack, my son!" murmured the colonel, as his eyes rested on the face of the youth. "My son, at last!"