have brought the parson," said McTurpin. "We can be married at once."

"I--I--let us wait a little," stammered Inez.

"Why?" the gambler asked suspiciously. "Where were you going?"

"Nowhere," she evaded, "for a walk--"

"Well, you can walk back to the hotel, my lady," said McTurpin. "I have
little time to waste. And there's Benito to consider," he concluded.
Suddenly he put an arm about her waist and kissed her. Inez thought of
her brother and tried to submit. But she could not repress a little cry
of aversion, of fear. The bearded man stepped forward. "Hold up a bit,
partner," he drawled. "This doesn't look quite regular. Don't you wish
to marry him, young lady?"

"Of course she does," McTurpin blustered. "She rode all the way in from
her mother's ranch to be my wife." He glared at Inez. "Isn't it true?"
he flung at her. "Tell him."

She nodded her head miserably. But the stranger was not satisfied. "Let
go of her," he said, and when McTurpin tailed to heed the order, sinewy
fingers on the gambler's wrist enforced it.

"Now, tell me, Miss, what's wrong?" the bearded one invited. "Has this
fellow some hold on you? Is he forcing you into this marriage?"

Again the girl nodded dumbly.

"She lies," said McTurpin, venomously, but the words were scarcely out
of his mouth before the stranger's fist drove them back. McTurpin
staggered. "Damn you!" he shouted, "I teach you to meddle between a man
and his woman."

Inez saw something gleam in his hand as the two men sprang upon each
other. She heard another blow, a groan. Screaming, she fled uphill
toward the custom house.

CHAPTER X

HULL "CAPITULATES"

Like a startled deer, Inez Windham fled from McTurpin and the stranger,
her little, high-heeled slippers sinking unheeded into the horse-trodden
mire of Portsmouth Square, her silk skirt spattered and soiled; her
hair, freed from the protecting mantilla, blowing in the searching trade
wind. Thus, as Commander Hull sat upon the custom house veranda, reading
the latest dispatch from Captain Ward, she burst upon him--a flushed,
disheveled, lovely vision with fear-stricken eyes.

"Senor," she panted, "Senor Commandante ... I must speak with you at
once!"

Hull rose. "My dear young lady"--he regarded her with patent
consternation--"my dear young lady ... w-what is wrong?"

She was painfully aware of her bedraggled state, the whirlwind lack of
ceremony with which she had propelled herself into his presence.
Su