“You don’t need a doctor any more.  What you want is a nurse.”

“That’s so.  I could mind her easy,” said Dick.

“Oh, I meant a man nurse,” said the girl.

Ned produced some joints of sugar-cane for dessert, and made a can of after-dinner sweet-bay tea, and then began to ask questions.

“Daddy, I want to find out whether you and Molly are crazy or whether I am.  You never saw Dick before.  You said so half an hour ago.  Dick never saw you or Molly.  He said so half an hour ago—­”

“But Ned—­” interrupted Dick.

“You keep still.  I’ve got the floor.  Now, Dad, you and Molly rush up to this chap, whom you never saw before, and fall into his arms—­”

“Neddy Barstow, I didn’t do anything of the kind.  But I had seen him and I did know him,” said the girl.

“Now, there you go.  How ever did you know this chum of mine, who never saw you?”

“How did Dick save your life, Ned?” asked Mr. Barstow in a voice that wasn’t quite as steady as usual.

“I can tell you,” broke in Dick.  “He didn’t do it at all.  That’s how.”

“Dad, when our canoe was wrecked, we lost the beautifullest skin of the biggest kind of a panther—­eight feet from tip to tip.  Dick saw the panther first, when he was ten feet from us, ready to jump.  I fired at the beast, and he sprang for me, but Dick jumped at the same time and got between us, so the panther landed on him and I was saved.  That’s why he is sick now.  I s’pose that is what knocked his memory endwise, so he don’t remember anything about it.”

“Mr. Barstow,” said Dick, “I wish you would ask Ned who it was that swam ashore with me when the big tarpon smashed the canoe and knocked me out.  Yes, and he almost lost his own life in saving mine.  Please ask him.  I want to see if he has lost his memory.”

Ned tried to speak, but Molly had her arms around his neck, saying nice things to him.

“See here, sis, doesn’t part of this belong to Dick?” said Ned, and got his ears boxed very promptly.

“Did not Dick tell you, Ned, that he came from New York to Key West on the steamer with us, and that Molly and I got acquainted with him, and that he then slipped away at Key West so that we could not find him?” asked Mr. Barstow.

“Never told me a word.  Dick, you gay deceiver, you pretended to tell me everything, and you left out the most interesting part.  You probably thought I wasn’t interested in Dad or Molly.”

“But, Ned, I never knew they were your father and sister until just now.  I told you everything that seemed worth speaking of.”

“Hear that, Molly?  This young man says you didn’t seem worth speaking of.  Can’t you get even with him for that?  Now, tell me how you happen to be here, you and Dad.  I told Dick that he wouldn’t move a finger for us till the time of my vacation was up.”