rried
your guardian will be powerless. He will have me to deal with then, not
a defenceless girl."

"But, Richard, this seems so sudden!"

"It ought not to, Florence. Have we not waited for each other long
enough? Have we not been separated long enough? I am not much richer
than when I left you--not so rich," he added, smiling, "as your other
suitor, Orton Campbell."

"I will marry you if only to get rid of him, Richard," said Florence,
impetuously.

"I won't quarrel with your motives, since you consent."

So it happened that on their arrival in San Francisco they directed
Jones to drive to the house of a clergyman, and were speedily united in
marriage, the clergyman's wife and daughter being witnesses.
Circumstances compelled them to dispense with the usual "cards and
cake."

At nine o'clock, Orton Campbell, secure of his prey, drove up to Mrs.
Bradshaw's door and leisurely descended.

"Well, and how is Miss Douglas this morning?" he asked of the astonished
landlady.

"How is she? She's gone."

"What!" ejaculated Orton, furiously; "you have dared to let her escape?"

"You sent for her yourself. She went away with the mad doctor."

"'The mad doctor'? I don't know anything about any mad doctor. Woman,
you are deceiving me."

"Don't call me _woman_!" said Mrs. Bradshaw, offensively, putting her
arms akimbo. "I'm no more a woman than you are."

"Then you'd better dress differently," sneered Campbell. "Tell me what
all this means."

"The man that drove the lady out here yesterday came here more than an
hour ago and said you had sent for her. He said there was a doctor in
the carriage who would take her to the asylum. That corresponded with
what you told me, and I let her go."

"That scoundrel Jones!" exclaimed Orton Campbell. "So this is his
revenge? I must go back to the city at once and circumvent him if I
can."

He was about to go when Mrs. Bradshaw said, "Before you go you'd better
pay me what you promised."

"I won't pay you a cent," said Campbell, angrily.

"Jack!"

The word spoken by the woman brought a rough-looking man to the
carriage-door.

"This man says he won't pay me a cent, Jack," said Mrs. Bradshaw.

"You'd better reconsider that, stranger," said Jack, pulling out a
revolver and fingering it significantly.

"I owe her nothing," said Orton Campbell, surveying the revolver
uneasily. "If she had kept the young lady here, it would have been
different."

"If there's a trick been