Closer inspection of the slightly disfigured face
proved that, apart from the scar on the forehead, it was the
countenance of Nichol. A possible solution of the mystery was
beginning to force itself in Hobart's reluctant mind. When Nichol
had fallen in the Wilderness, the shock of his injury had rendered
him senseless and caused him to appear dead to the hasty scrutiny
of Sam and Jim Wetherby. They were terribly excited and had no
time for close examination. Nichol might have revived, have been
gathered up with the Confederate wounded, and sent to Richmond.
There was dire and tremendous confusion at that period, when
within the space of two or three days tens of thousands were
either killed or disabled. In a Southern hospital Nichol might
have recovered physical health while, from injury to the brain,
suffering complete eclipse of memory. In this case he would have
to begin life anew, like a child, and so would pick up the
vernacular and bearing of the enlisted men with whom he would
chiefly associate.
Because he remembered nothing and know nothing, he may at first
have been tolerated as a "cur'ous chap," then employed as he had
explained.
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