“No, Miss Doyle.  I hired the farmer to drive me to the railway station, where I took the train to New York.  I seemed to know the city, but no recollection guided me to home or friends.  I went to a small hotel, took a room, and began to read all the newspapers, seeking to discover if anyone was reported missing.  The sight of automobiles led me to conceive the theory that I had been riding in one of those machines along a country road when something threw me out.  My head might have struck a stump or stone and the blow rendered me insensible.  Something in the nature of the thing, or in my physical condition, deprived me of all knowledge of the past.  Since then I have read of several similar cases.  The curious thing about my own experience was that I could find no reference to my disappearance, in any way, nor could I learn of any automobile accident that might account for it.  I walked the streets day after day, hoping some acquaintance would accost me.  I waited patiently for some impulse to direct me to my former haunts.  I searched the newspapers persistently for a clue; but nothing rewarded me.

“After spending all my money and the proceeds of my watch and diamond, I began to seek employment; but no one would employ a man without recommendations or antecedents.  I did not know what work I was capable of doing.  So finally I left the city and for more than two years I have been wandering from one part of the country to another, hoping that some day I would recognize a familiar spot.  I have done odd jobs, at times, but my fortunes went from bad to worse until of late I have become no better than the typical tramp.”

“How did you secure employment as a book-keeper for Skeelty?” asked Uncle John.

“I heard a new mill had started at Royal and walked up there to inquire for work.  The manager asked if I could keep books, and I said yes.”

“Have you ever kept books before?”

“Not that I know of; but I did it very well.  I seemed to comprehend the work at once, and needed no instruction.  Often during these two years I have encountered similar curious conditions.  I sold goods in a store and seemed to know the stocks; I worked two weeks in a telegraph office and discovered I knew the code perfectly; I’ve shod horses for a country blacksmith, wired a house for electric lights and compounded prescriptions in a drug store.  Whatever I have undertaken to do I seem able to accomplish, and so it is hard for me to guess what profession I followed before my memory deserted me.”

“You did not retain any position for long, it seems,” remarked Uncle John.

“No; I was always impatient to move on, always hoping to arrive at some place so familiar that my lost memory would return to me.  The work I have mentioned was nearly all secured during the first year.  After I became seedy and disreputable in appearance people were more apt to suspect me and work was harder to obtain.”