"I'm afraid that's as near it as I ever shall get," thought poor Dick. "If only I could see something, or somebody, or hear something said that would recall the past. But I can't."
A little later some one knocked on the door. Thinking it was Mr. Snowden, who used to call on the permanent lodgers in the house occasionally, Dick called out an invitation to enter.
A tall young man came in. He was a stranger to Dick, who looked at him in the light of the gas-jet, wondering what was wanted.
"Is Jimmy Small here?" asked the young man.
"He is out selling papers," replied Dick. "I'm his partner. Can I do anything for you."
"Well, I just dropped in to pay him a friendly visit, as I promised I would. I'm Mr. Crosscrab."
"Oh, yes, I've often heard Jimmy speak of you. Won't you sit down. He'll soon be in."
Dick stepped out of the shadow cast by a shelf on the wall and offered Mr. Crosscrab a chair. As the light fell upon the boy's face the visitor stepped back in amazement.
"Well, Jimmy calls me Dick Box. My first name is Dick, but I have forgotten my other."
"Yes, yes! I know. You're Dick Box. At least, that's what Jimmy calls you. But--yes, it must be--yet I had better make certain before I tell him," and these last words Mr. Crosscrab murmured in a low voice.
Dick did not know what to make of the man's manner.
"What is it?" he asked. "What is the matter?"
"I wish I had known this before I went to Vermont," went on Mr. Crosscrab, speaking to himself. "Yet it must be the same one. But how could he be here when he's supposed to be in Chicago?"
Dick began to be a little alarmed. He thought perhaps Mr. Crosscrab might be a little insane. He wished Jimmy would come in.
"Can't you remember your other name?" asked the visitor. "Try--try very hard."
"I have tried--every day, but it's no use."
"No. All I can remember is a large house with lots of ground about it, and a man and woman who were kind to me. Oh, Mr. Crosscrab, do you know anything about me? Do you know who I am? Tell me, please, if you do!"
"I am not sure, yet you look exactly the same. Tell me, can you remember anything about the house where you used to live?"
Dick puzzled his brain. Strange shadows seemed to flit past him, yet they meant nothing.