The magnate stood with finger on the push-button. “Come back, I say!” “I protest. This is none of my business. I am here for something else than to listen to your daughter's private affairs.” “You come back!” commanded the father in low tones of menace, “or I'll have you held for the United States marshals the minute you step foot outside that door.” Raging within himself at the tactics of this incomprehensible girl, Captain Mayo walked slowly to the desk; it occurred to him that it was as hard to get out of Julius Marston's office as it was to get in. “I would never have come in here if I had dreamed that your daughter would tell you what she has. I am in a false position. I insist that you allow me to leave.” “You'll leave when I get to the bottom of this thing! Now, Alma, what new craziness is all this?” “I am not resenting the word you apply to it,” she replied, facing him resolutely. “I did it--and I don't know why I did it!” “Did what?” “I ran away. I did it because the girls dared me to do it. I promised a man I would marry him.” “This man, eh?” “No. I have told you this is not the man.” “Well, who, then?” Incredulity was mingled with her father's wrath. “One of your trusted young gentlemen. Mr. Ralph Bradish.” “Where did you meet him?” “At the dances.” “Not at our house?” “I do not know how you are so sure of that, father,” she returned, a touch of rather wistful reproach in her tones. “You have left me alone in that house ever since mother went away. But it was not at our house--it was in the public ball-rooms.” “Hell set to music!” he rasped. “I ought to have realized that you are still an infant!” “No; I am a woman to-day. I lived a whole lifetime in one night on the ocean. I know you have reason to be ashamed of me. But I'll never give you cause for shame again. Now what are you going to say to this man who saved my life--who did more than that? He saved me from myself!” Marston narrowed his eyes and scrutinized Mayo. “I don't understand this thing yet! The story doesn't ring right.” He turned on his daughter. “How did this man save your life? Be quick and be short!” He interrupted her in the middle of her eager recital. He had been scowling while she talked, staring into vacancy in meditation. “A story-book tale!” he declared, impatiently, and yet there was a shade of insincerity in that impatience. “I would be bitterly ashamed of you, Alma, if you had run away as you are trying to make me believe. But--” “Don't you believe me?” “Silence! But this trumped-up story is too transparent. You are still acting the fool in the matter of this person, here. Now see here, my man, you are here to-day on the _Montana_ affair. Isn't that so?” “It is, sir.” “I was sure of it. How did you dare to sneak into that job after I had discharged you from the _Olenia_?” “There was no sneaking to it! I was hired by Mr. Fogg and I--”