f Inza Burrage. They
had been very friendly--more than friendly; in a boy and girl way, they
were lovers.

After leaving Fardale and starting to travel, Frank had written to Inza,
and she had answered. For a time the correspondence had continued, but,
at last, Frank had failed to receive any answers to his letters. He
wrote again and again, but never a line came from Inza, and he finally
decided she had grown tired of him, and had taken this method of
dropping him.

Frank was proud and sensitive, and he resolved to forget Inza. This was
not easy, but he thought of her as little as possible, and never spoke
of her to any one.

And now he had met her in this remarkable manner. Some fellow had
written him from Fardale that Mr. Burrage had moved from the place, but
no one seemed to know whither he had gone. Frank had not dreamed of
seeing Inza in New Orleans, but she was the mysterious Queen of Flowers,
and, for some reason, she was in trouble and peril.

Although dazed by his astonishing discovery, the boy quickly recovered,
and he felt that he could battle with a hundred ruffians in the defense
of the girl beyond the broken door.

Barney Mulloy seemed no less astonished than Frank.

"Be me soul! it is thot lassie!" he cried.

"Inza! Inza!" shouted Frank, through the broken panel.

She heard him.

"Frank! Frank! Save me!"

"I will!"

The promise was given with the utmost confidence.

At that moment, however, the ruffian whose wrist Frank had broken,
leaped upon the girl and grasped her with his uninjured arm.

"_Carramba!_" he snarled. "You save-a her? Bah! Fool! You never git-a
out with whole skin!"

"Drop her, you dog!" cried Frank, pointing his revolver at the
fellow--"drop her, or I'll put a bullet through your head, instead of
your wrist!"

"Bah! Shoot! You kill-a her!"

He held the struggling girl before him as a shield.

Like a raging lion, Frank tore at the panel.

The man with the girl swiftly moved back to a door at the farther side
of the room. This door he had already unfastened and flung open.

"_Adios!_" he cried, derisively. "Some time I square wid you for my
hand-a! _Adios!_"

"Th' spalpanes are comin' up th' shtairs again, Frankie!" cried Barney,
in the ear of the desperate boy at the door.

Frank did not seem to hear; he was striving to break the stout panel so
that he could force his way through the opening.

"Frank! Frank! they're coming up th' shtairs!"

"Let them come!"