CHAPTER XXVI
DR. ROBINSON
Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at least doublethe number of minutes. Moreover, he was getting hungry.
A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind.
"The wretches can't mean to starve me, can they?" he asked himself.Despite his constitutional courage he could not help shuddering at theidea.
He was unexpectedly answered by the opening of the door, and theappearance of the old man.
"Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a disagreeablesmile upon his features.
"Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, angrily.
"Why are you confined? Really, one would think you didn't find yourquarters comfortable."
"I am so far from finding them agreeable, that I insist upon leavingthem immediately," returned Jack.
"Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door."
"You have locked it."
"Why, so I have," said the old man, with a leer.
"I insist upon your opening it."
"I shall do so when I get ready to go out, myself."
"I shall go with you."
"I think not."
"Who's to prevent me?" said Jack, defiantly.
"Who's to prevent you?"
"Yes; you'd better not attempt it. I should be sorry to hurt you, but Imean to go out. If you attempt to stop me, you must take theconsequences."
"I am afraid you are a violent young man. But I've got a man who is amatch for two like you."
The old man opened the door.
"Samuel, show yourself," he said.
A brawny negro, six feet in height, and evidently very powerful, came tothe entrance.
"If this young man attempts to escape, Samuel, what will you do?"
"Tie him hand and foot," answered the negro.
"That'll do, Samuel. Stay where you are."
He closed the door and looked triumphantly at our hero.
Jack threw himself sullenly into a chair.
"Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.
"Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to transact, myyoung friend, and so she has gone. She commended you to our particularattention, and you will be just as well treated as if she were here."
This assurance was not calculated to comfort Jack.
"How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.
"Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. I don't know how long it willbe before you are cured."
"Cured?" repeated Jack, puzzled.
The old man tapped his forehead.
"You're a little affected here, you know, but under my treatment I hopesoon to restore you to your friends."
"What!" ejaculated our hero, terror-stricken, "you don't mean to say youthink I'm crazy?"
"To be sure you are," said the old man, "but--"
"But I tell you it's a lie," exclaimed Jack, energetically. "Who toldyou so?"
"Your aunt."
"My aunt?"
"Yes, Mrs. Hardwick. She brought you here to be treated for insanity."
"It's a base lie," said Jack, hotly. "That woman is no more my aunt thanyou are. She's an impostor. She carried off my sister Ida, and this isonly a plot to get rid of me. She told me she was going to take me tosee Ida."
The old man shrugged his shoulders.
"My young friend," he said, "she told me all about it--that you had adelusion about some supposed sister, whom you accused her of carryingoff."
"This is outrageous," said Jack, hotly.
"That's what all my patients say."
"And you are a mad-doctor?"
"Yes."
"Then you know by my looks that I am not crazy."
"Pardon me, my young friend; that doesn't follow. There is a peculiarappearance about your eyes which I cannot mistake. There's no mistakeabout it, my good sir. Your mind has gone astray, but if you'll bequiet, and won't excite yourself, you'll soon be well."
"How soon?"
"Well, two or three months."
"Two or three months! You don't mean to say you want to confine me heretwo or three months?"
"I hope I can release you sooner."
"You can't understand your business very well, or you would see at oncethat I am not insane."
"That's what all my patients say. They won't any of them own that theirminds are affected."
"Will you supply me with some writing materials?"
"Yes; Samuel shall bring them here."
"I suppose you will excuse my suggesting also that it is dinner time?"
"He shall bring you some dinner at the same time."
The old man retired, but in fifteen minutes a plate of meat andvegetables was brought to the room.
"I'll bring the pen and ink afterward," said the negro.
In spite of his extraordinary situation and uncertain prospects, Jackate with his usual appetite.
Then he penned a letter to his uncle, briefly detailing the circumstancesof his present situation.
"I am afraid," the letter concluded, "that while I am shut up here, Mrs.Hardwick will carry Ida out of the city, where it will be more difficultfor us to get on her track. She is evidently a dangerous woman."
Two days passed and no notice was taken of the letter.