y and Gates had reached an understanding.

Of course, I was bursting to know what those conspirators had up their
sleeves. Tommy stood in the middle of the cockpit, looking serious and
thoughtful. Now, in an impressive voice, he said:

"Monsieur, Gates has been good enough to get out his copy of American
Marine Law, pertaining to the obligations and powers of captains of
American vessels sailing upon salt water. Perhaps, after this brief
preamble, it would be tautological for me to continue with what your
overly acute mind must have by this time grasped; nevertheless, you
will pardon me if I read you a paragraph, that goes as follows: 'In
cases of emergency, where it is evident that a vessel can not in the
required time reach a port wherein there may with certainty be found a
civil officer of the United States of America, or the captain of such
vessel in any other circumstances deems the request of the principals a
proper one and of sufficient warrant, he is thereby, and is hereby,
endowed with the right to perform the ceremony of marriage according to
the civil code of said United States, and such ceremony, properly
attested by two witnesses, shall constitute the bonds of holy matrimony
before the world.'"

At the beginning of this Monsieur had sprung up, but before Tommy
concluded he again sank into his chair, breathing fast and blinking.

"Gates," Tommy asked, "do you consider the request of these principals a
proper one and of sufficient warrant?"

"I do, sir," Gates answered.

"You consider that the emergency in every way justifies you to perform
this ceremony of marriage?"

"I do, sir."

"Then, Jack," he turned to me, "suppose we say high noon. It's a
fashionable hour, and gives you a little while to primp up."

I gasped at him, unable to believe my ears; but before I could speak
Monsieur was again raving.

"It shall not!" he yelled. "I say it shall not; for now I, too, play a
card!" And drawing from his pocket a paper, discolored by wear and age,
he flourished it in our faces, crying: "By this authority I claim her as
my ward; both of us Azurians; and in the name of my country I forbid the
marriage!"

"Gates," Tommy asked, without batting an eye at Monsieur's grandiloquent
outburst--which seemed to me the absolute frustration of our plan, "we
don't know this man. He's a tramp we picked up at Key West. Do you
recognize his credentials, or would you say they're forgeries?"

"They look like forgeries