ed
front room, passed down a short corridor and, when he heard the voice
once again on the inside of a door which he found locked, he immediately
kicked the door open. He appeared to those in the room, heralded by an
amazing crash and flying splinters.

First of all, he was astonished to find two women there; one was Miss
Kilgour and the other was her mother. And there were the two men whom he
had followed.

Farr swept off his hat and addressed the girl.

"I happened to be passing and heard your voice," he said. "If you are--"
He hesitated, a bit confused, realizing all at once that knight-errantry
in modern days is not quite as free and easy a matter as it used to be
when damsels were in distress in the ruder times of yore. "I am at your
service," he added, a bit curtly.

But she did not reply. Her attitude was tense, her cheeks were flaming,
her eyes were like glowing coals.

"You lunatic, you have come slamming in here, disturbing a private
wedding," announced the man in the white tie, slapping his palm upon the
book he carried.

"Get out of here!" shouted Dodd. He had dodged into a corner of the
room, his face whitening, when Farr had burst in. He remained in the
corner now, brandishing his cane.

The uninvited guest surveyed the young man with more composure than he
had been able to command when he looked at the girl.

Etienne Provancher had fortified him with some valuable information.

"Mr. Richard Dodd, I'll apologize and walk out of here after you have
explained to me why you have faked up into a parson one Dennis Burke,
late of the state prison, to officiate at weddings."

Upon the silence that followed the girl thrust an "Oh!" into which she
put grief, protest, anger, consternation.

"Mother!" she cried. "Did you know? How could you allow--how did you
come to do such a terrible thing?"

Her mother put her hands to her face and sat down and began to sob with
hysterical display of emotion. Farr scowled a bit as he looked at
her. She was overdressed. There was an artificial air about her whole
appearance--even her hysterics seemed artificial.

The girl turned from her with a gesture of angry despair as if she
realized, from experience, that she could expect, at that juncture, only
emotion without explanation.

"Hold on here," cried Dodd, "hold on here, everybody! This is all right.
You just let me inform you, Mr. Butter-in, that Mr. Burke has full
authority to solemnize a marriage. He is a nota