telephone. He was in a curious
predicament.

"We will send out a general alarm if we do not find him soon," the
superintendent went on. "Occasionally delirious patients wander from
the wards while the nurses are temporarily absent, but they are
always found hiding in some part of the hospital. We have not yet
completed the search. Only once in a great while do they get outside
the institution. Yet Mr. Potter may have."

"Then we may never find him again," spoke Grace.

"Don't worry," Larry advised, as cheerfully as he could. "He'll come
back."

"I'll never see him again!" and Grace was on the verge of tears.
"Oh, this is terrible!"

Just then there was heard a confusion of sounds in the corridor
outside of the superintendent's office. The latter went to the door,
and through the opened portal Grace and Larry heard some one
exclaim:

"He's come back!"

"Maybe that's him!" cried the reporter.

The superintendent returned to his office.

"I have a pleasant surprise for you," he exclaimed. "The patient has
come back. He says he went out to a telephone."

"Is he--is he all right?" asked Grace.

"Better than ever. The little trip seemed to do him good. Here he
is."

He threw open the door he had closed. There, standing in the
corridor, was the man Larry had known as Mah Retto--the man he
believed was Mr. Potter. The patient was smiling at the reporter.

"There is your father, Grace," said Larry.

The girl gave one look at the man confronting her. She seemed to
sway forward, and became deathly pale----

"That is not my father!" she cried, as she fell in a faint.

CHAPTER XXIX

IN HIS ENEMIES' POWER

"Quick! Catch her!" cried the hospital superintendent, springing
forward, but it was Larry who put out his arms and kept Grace from
falling to the floor.

"Here, nurse," called one of several physicians who had gathered in
the corridor when the news spread that the missing patient had
returned. "Look after her, please. Carry her into the receiving
room."

"Who is she?" asked the patient, who had caused such a stir, and to
whom no one seemed to be paying any attention in the excitement
caused by Grace's swoon. The man had not caught a good look at the
girl.

"She is Grace Potter," replied Larry, glancing curiously at Mah
Retto.

"Grace Potter? Hamden Potter's daughter?" The man seemed greatly
excited.

"Yes. She came here expecting, as I did, to meet her father. I
thought you were Mr. Pott