"Hello, Smeltzer!" was Harcourt's off-hand greeting as the other sprang out of the boat and stood confronting him. He spoke with a jaunty good fellowship that he was far from feeling. The women were out of sight, but his strained ear could detect sounds coming from their direction. He knew that Philip was likely to appear at any moment on the bank above them. "You after bass too?" He rather ostentatiously displayed his fishing tackle. Smeltzer came directly to the point. "No, sir, I'm not after bass to-day unless you might call it calico bass. I'm after the woman you've been spiriting around the country. I guess she'll not give me the slip this time." "My good man," said Harcourt, a little haughtily, "I think you are suffering under a misapprehension. We are innocent tourists out for a picnic." "You'll get your picnic all right, before you get through, but you may not be able to run it to suit you. Where is she? You may as well stand aside now, Mr. Harcourt. I mean business." At this moment the thing that Harcourt had been fearing happened. Philip appeared on the bank just beyond them. Harcourt motioned him back with a quick gesture, but in the meantime Mr. Smeltzer had sprung nimbly up the bank and was close behind the frightened child. Harcourt and the man who had done the rowing followed. When they reached the spot that had been selected for the picnic, the terror-stricken women were huddled together and Margaret had Philip in her arms. Smeltzer was explaining his business. "I am sorry to interrupt this party, ladies, but I have an order here authorizing me to take Mrs. De Jarnette and child into custody and bring them to the City of Washington, D. C." "An order from whom?" demanded Margaret. "From the guardian of this child, Mr. Richard De Jarnette." "You may go back to Mr. Richard De Jarnette and tell him that I do not acknowledge his right to control either me or my child. I refuse to go." When Mr. Smeltzer replied to this it was in a tone so reasonable and conciliatory and withal so earnest that it alarmed Mrs. Pennybacker more than bluster would have done. "I hope you will not persist in that decision, Mrs. De Jarnette. It will be far better for you in the end to go back peaceably with me. Mr. De Jarnette has had men on the search for this child for nearly five years. You can depend upon it that he will not give him up now that he is found. But--it may be that when you see him and talk it over with him you may be able to come to some sort of a compromise about it." "See here, Smeltzer," said Harcourt, "you can't bulldoze us in any such way as this! You haven't the power to take Mrs. De Jarnette or her child back to Washington on an order from any private individual, and you know it. If you propose to arrest her you'll have to show a warrant for it. Isn't that right, Captain?" "That's right, sir," replied the captain, who was an interested spectator.