“No, I guess not,” answered Larry, as he went down the steps.

His mind was in a tumult.  More and more he was coming to believe that the mysterious man in the hospital was the missing millionaire.

“That’s what he meant when he said I was following him too close,” mused Larry.  “And I never suspected it!  How glad Grace will be!  What a story I shall have!  I wish I had discovered him myself, without any help from the detective agency, but it will make good reading, anyhow.  I must arrange it so we can get a scoop out of it.”

His first act was to go to the office of the paper and tell Mr. Emberg what had occurred.  The city editor was much excited by the news.

“That will make a great yarn!” he exclaimed.  “I hope your friend Grace soon comes back with her mother and makes the identification complete.  We must do nothing to hasten matters or some other paper will get on to the game and spoil our story.”

“Even the hospital people don’t suspect yet,” said Larry.  “They don’t know who their patient is—­not even his assumed name.”

“I guess things are coming our way.  We’ll clear up the Potter mystery and the Sullivan disappearance at the same time.  I believe Sullivan is in with Mr. Potter on some deal.  It begins to look suspicious.  The friends of Reilly and Kilburn are all at sea.  They’d give a thousand dollars to know which way Sullivan was going to jump.”

Larry paid an early visit to the hospital the next day to see how matters were progressing.  His friend, the nurse, greeted him with a smile.

“I guess you can have an interview with your mysterious acquaintance now,” she said.  “He is much better than we expected, and, for the first time since the operation, talks rationally.  We have not questioned him yet.  We are not as curious as you newspaper men are.”

“Well, we have to be,” responded Larry.  “Can I go up now?  Has the man who was here yesterday been back?”

“Yes to your first question, and no to the second.  You can go up.  The superintendent left word to that effect.  He is quite friendly to you.”

Larry started for the ward where Retto was.  His heart was beating strangely.  He felt that he was on the verge of solving the secret of the millionaire’s disappearance and restoring to Grace her father.

As he approached the bed where Retto reclined he was motioned back by another nurse on duty there.

“He has just fallen asleep,” she said.  “When he awakens again you may speak to him.  He has been writing a letter.”

Larry was disappointed.  He looked at the man who had played such an important part in the disappearance of the millionaire, and who, he believed, was destined to assume a much more important role.  The patient’s beard and moustache had grown since the accident, and the smooth-shaven man was no more.  Instead, Larry saw before him a person who, as he recalled the photographs of Mr. Potter, bore a remarkable resemblance to the millionaire.