“If they had only dared to use lights, I might have had a harder fight,” chuckled Alaric Hobbs, as he descended the very last one. “Major,” said he huskily, “I’ve got my things corraled up there, and the instruments, and so on. Leave me a couple of men, and get your own people back now to the Folly. I’ll ‘hold the fort’ here, till you bring the proper authorities. Our man won’t run away now. He is ‘permanently fixed’ for a long repose from ‘further anxieties.’” But fiercely bristling up, old Andrew Fraser now loudly demanded to be allowed the ordering of all. “This is an outrage,” he babbled. “You are a cheat, a fraud, an impostor, in league with the robbers.” So, fiercely addressing Major Hardwicke, he tried to drag away Miss Nadine Johnstone, at whose feet the stout Mattie Jones was blubbering and wailing. “Captain Murray,” sternly cried Major Hardwicke, “take Miss Nadine and her maid to the Folly. Leave the two gardeners on guard. Return here as soon as you can, for the Professor and myself. I will come over with him. Have a horse at once saddled and bring a man to take my dispatches to General Wragge and for London. Bring me some writing materials. This must be reported at once.” “Go now, dearest Nadine,” her lover implored. “I will join you at once. Trust to me, all in all. I will never leave you again,” and then and there, before her astounded guardian, Nadine Johnstone threw her ams around her lover in a fond embrace. “You will come?” “At once,” cried the Major, as he cried out hastily, “Drive on!” Old Andrew Fraser writhed in vain in Hardwicke’s grasp. “Be quiet, you damned old fool!” pithily said Alaric Hobbs. “They saved your life for you!” “You shall never darken my doors,” raged Andrew Fraser. “I will go there to-night, and at once remove my property,” coldly answered Hardwicke. “After that I care not to visit you, save to lead your niece to the altar. But I will have a reckoning with you! Don’t fear!” “You shall never marry her,” the old pedant cried. “You shall answer to me for this whole dastardly outrage.” “All right,” coolly said Hardwicke. “It’s man to man, now. I will marry your niece within a month, and, with your written permission!” And not another single word would the disgusted Hardwicke utter--while old Fraser clung to Alaric Hobbs, whining in his wrath. In an hour, a motley cortege slowly left the door of the martello tower. Murray and Hardwicke walking, armed, beside the carriage, where Mr. Jack Blunt, still bound, was the sullen companion of the half-crazed Professor Fraser. To the demands of “Joseph Smith’s” friends Hardwicke replied: “He will undoubtedly be released tomorrow by the proper authorities if there is a mistake.”