him."

"Who is her father?"

"I don't intend to tell you, sir. That hasn't anything to do with the
matter."

Captain Downs looked his passenger up and down with great disfavor. "And
what's your general idea in loading yourselves onto me in this fashion?"

"You have the right, as captain of a ship outside the three-mile limit,
to marry folks in an emergency."

"I ain't sure that I've got any such right, and I ain't at all certain
about the emergency, Mr. Bradish. I ain't going to stick my head into a
scrape."

"But there can't be any scrape for you. You simply exercise your right
and marry us and enter it in your log and give us a paper. It will be
enough of a marriage so that we can't be separated."

"Want to hold a hand you can bluff her father with, hey? I don't approve
of any such tactics in matrimony."

"I wouldn't be doing this if there were any other safe way for us,"
protested Bradish, earnestly. "I'm no cheap fellow. I hold down a good
job, sir. But the trouble is I work for her father--and you know how it
always is in a case like that. He can't see me!"

"Rich, eh?"

"Yes, sir!" Bradish made the admission rather sullenly.

"It's usually the case when there's eloping done!"

"But this will not seem like eloping when it's reported right in the
newspapers. Marriage at sea--it will seem like a romantic way of getting
rid of the fuss of a church wedding. We'll put out a statement of that
sort. It will give her father a chance to stop all the gossip. He'll be
glad if you perform the ceremony."

"Say, young fellow, you're not rehearsing the stuff on me that you used
on the girl, are you? Well, it doesn't go!

"Captain Downs, you must understand how bull-headed some rich men are in
matters of this kind. I am active and enterprising. I'll be a handy man
for him. He likes me in a business way--he has said so. He'll be all
right after he gets cooled down."

"More rehearsal! But I ain't in love with you like that girl is."

"We're in a terrible position, captain! Perhaps it wasn't a wise thing
to do. But it will come out all right if you marry us."

"What's her name?"

"I can't tell you."

"How in the devil can I marry you and her if I don't know her name?"

"But you haven't promised that you will do your part! I don't want to
expose this whole thing and then be turned down."

"I ain't making any rash promises," stated Captain Downs, walking to the
rail and taking a squint at the top-hamper. "Bes