The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-12-31
TAKEN FOR A MADMAN.

the United States ana was SlCUlnS III my
chambers in Broad street, Aberdeen,
smoking the pipe of peace and feeling
full of amity to all mankind" 1t was in
the month of November, in the year
1875. I was very glad to get back to the
dear auld Granite City, for | had not
been at home for three years. I was
looking forward to resuming all my old
friendships and wondering where
should begin. Fate settled the question
for me. The double rat-tat-tat of the
postman sounded on my front door, and
my good old housekeeper, Mrs. Duthil,
brought me letter in a well known
handwriting. 1t was from my next best
friend, Alec Disney.
II have just heard of your arrival,
dear old fellow" it read, land shall be
deeply offended if you don't come to see
me first. / am in charge of the Inch
Lunatic asylum. Things have prospered
with me, you see. Work, however, is
very slack. have only some twenty in
mates at present, so come out and spend
a few days with me, and we'll try to
have good time together. BY the way,
/ have my old Irish servant, Mike Brady,
with me still. / have installed him as
head warden, and barring an occasional
mistake or two he accomplishes his du-
ties in mastery fashion and looks
after my welfare as of yore at the same
time. We might put up an old time
joke upon him. 1t would be fun. Twill
meet you in the gig at Inch station to-
morrow evening at z. Don't fail You
need not reply to this, but just come.
Yours as in the old days, Alec"
Of course / wouldn't fail, and it was
too late to reply anyway, for here it was
8 o'clock in the afternoon and he ex-
pected me by z. The letter of course
was written the day before, and ''to-
morrow" meant today.
Mike Brady was great, brawny Irish
man, devoted to Alec, who had found
him poor, starving waif, had taken
him in, fed and clothed him and made
him his body servant, valet, secretary
and general factotum. The great heart
of the Irishman had warmed to his bene-
factor, and he loved Alec as a dog loves
his master. He had grown SO with
Alec's life that neither could do without
the other. Besides, there were two very
strong bonds which united these men
more closely even than gratitude and af-
lection. They both loved horses and
dogs.
When I jumped out of the car at Inch
station my dear old chum Disney was
waiting for me on the platform. A boy
was holding his horse outside. We did
not waste great deal of time over con-
gratulations, for it was cold, dark
night, and we had a drive Of five miles
to make. We were soon in the coy old
fashioned gig, which all country doctors
in Great Britain are so fond of, wrapped
up in our rugs, the boy had left the
horses head and we were trotting fast
along the frozen country road.
Now about the joke we are to put up
on Mike" 1 said, when he had gone
some distance. "What are we to DOR
Then Alec, the COMPOUNDED rascal, un-
folded a simple little plan. When Mike
came down to the door to meet us the
doctor would tell him in a quiet tone tc
show me the house and take me to my
room. Mike would never recognize me-
for had grown healthy beard which
completely disguised me, and he would
take me for new patient. The joke
would be immense when he discovered
his mistake. The scheme seemed glori
Gus one and / entered into it with avid.
ity.
Wl,of a fool T xxroc ,,o{ ~ cy,,o1I N ,o+
Why, knew that Alec Disney was the
biggest practical joker of our class.
Well, all turned out as we anticipated.
Mike came to the door and assisted us
out of our wraps and into the grateful
warmth of the big hall. He was in no.
wise altered, but as Alec had said he
did not recognize me.
"Milze," said Disney-and did moi
notice the wink of his sinister optic as
he said it-"take this gentleman over
the house first, show him every polite.
ness and then to his room; by that time
dinner will be ready. We are hungry.
dare say he may like BATH"
"Yis, sorr, l will attend to him." and
he did attend to me.
We went all over the building, up one
staircase and down another, along cor.
ridors, peeping into rooms and visiting
the billiard room, recreation hall, read
ing room, dining hall and everywhere.
noticed peculiar action on the part
of Mike, but put it down merely to his
ordinary precautionary habits. He closed
every door behind u.s. And he never al
lowed me to get out of his reach. He
also seemed to keep very careful eye
upon my every movement. But this
put down to the habit he had got into
from being SO long among lunatics.
Then began to notice another some.
what strange thing. Whenever we met
patient Mike spoke kindly and gently
to him, but when we met warder OF
nurse Mike seemed to throw out hint
to be more than ordinarily watchful,
and l saw two or three times that the
keepers took close look at me, as if
sizing me up l stand nearly six feet
and am a fairly strong man, an ugly GUS
toner when thoroughly aroused.
Presently found that Mike and were
not alone. Two of the warders were fol.
lowing us everywhere.
was getting ravenously hungry and
somewhat tired. Our five mile ride had
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