“I do not know for certain.  I shall try to assist him all I can.  But he will not go back to Jim Goban’s if I can help it.  It is the height of cruelty for such a refined man to live at a place like that.  I do not know what the people of this parish were thinking about to allow him to be put there.”

“Has he any relatives?”

“It seems not.  He has been a puzzle to every one since the day he came here.  He has been the laughing-stock of all the people because of a peculiar notion of his.”

“And what is that?”

“He is in love with Break Neck Falls over there, and talks to it as if it were a human being.  He believes that the time will come when people will obtain power and light from the falls, and the entire country will be greatly benefited.”

“So that is why he is called crazy, eh?”

“Yes.”

“Is there really a good reason for his idea?  Is there a large waterfall?”

“Yes.  I have been there several times, and consider it a good place for a plant.  The old man has curious drawings of his entire plans, which I shall show you as he left them with me this morning.  He must have forgotten them in his excitement, as I understand he guards them very carefully.  People laugh at Crazy David for the jealous way he protects his treasure.”

“Did you say his name is David?” the stranger asked.

“Yes.  David Findley, so I believe.  But he is only known as ’Crazy David’ in this parish.”

As Jasper uttered these words, the man lying on the cot rose suddenly to a sitting position, and looked keenly into the face of the young man before him as if he would read his innermost thoughts.  With an apparent effort he checked himself, and with a slight laugh resumed his former position.

“I got worked up over the hard luck of that old man,” he remarked.  “It is a downright shame that he should be called crazy, and misunderstood.  But, then, that has always been the way.  Men who have done most for their fellow men have been looked upon with suspicion, and termed fools or madmen.  May I see his drawings?”

For some time the stranger studied the rude lines old David had made upon the paper.  Not the slightest mark escaped his notice, and he plied Jasper with numerous questions most of which the latter was unable to answer.

“I am fond of studying human nature,” the visitor at length volunteered, as if to explain his remarkable interest in the old man, “and I must say that this is one of the most interesting cases I have ever come across.  Here we have an old, poverty-stricken man, somewhat weak-minded, who has the vision and the enthusiasm of youth, combined with a child’s simplicity.  And he really believes that people of capital will carry out his ideas, does he?”

“Yes, he is sure of it.”

“And he has no doubts as to the final outcome?”

“No.”

“This scheme gives him considerable pleasure, I suppose.”