"Why did you marry me? Oh!" she cried in despair, wringing her hands, "why did you do this awful thing?" "Why did I marry you?" repeated the man, dumbfounded. "Because I loved you. I told you I loved you when we were aboard ship, Ruth----" "Aboard ship! Aboard what ship?" "The _Minnequago_. Surely you have not forgotten our long talks? You have not forgotten----" "Am I mad?" cried the woman, throwing her arms wildly above her head. "Oh! I must be mad!" Then she gained sudden control over herself. She thrust her face forward, her eyes blazing into his. "If you are my husband," she whispered, "what is your name?" "I _am_ your husband," Ryder said sternly. "You were legally married to me yesterday. Here is the certificate which the minister gave you, and which you placed in my hands for safe keeping." He had dragged out his wallet and handed her the folded document. Her shaking fingers clutched at it and finally got the stiff paper unfolded. She read the names aloud in crescendo: "'Ruth A. Mont': 'John Ryder'. "The paper slipped from her fingers and fluttered to the floor. "'John Ryder'?" she repeated staring at him. "_I never heard of you before!_" She burst into tears, a passion of weeping that shook her whole body. For a moment she stood before him, so near that he might have touched her, her face in her trembling hands. The man stood still, dumb and helpless. Then turning swiftly she ran into the inner room. Ryder, at last awakened, started up. He was frightened by her vehemence, as well as amazed by her words. He started to follow her. She had shut the door sharply, but the key was not turned in the lock. He put his hand upon the door and hesitated. And so surely is the man lost who hesitates, John Ryder was lost then! There were two courses open to him, and he chose the wrong one. His hand left the knob, and with the sound of the woman's wild sobbing in his ears he went slowly down the room and out into the corridor. As he came in sight of the parlor door he saw White wildly break from the room and run for the stairway. John Ryder's senses were so dulled that he scarcely saw the man. But behind the departing White appeared in the parlor doorway the figure of Miss Solomons. The expression upon the house detective's face might have alarmed Ryder at another time. She fairly glared at him as he moved past her. "No, you ain't no crook, Mr. Ryder," he heard the strange girl mutter. "You're just a particular blamed fool! That's what you are." He managed to get out of the hotel in some way and stumbled along the sandy road to the shore of the inlet where he might be alone. He tramped the edge of the inlet for miles. His mind was back in the room at the hotel where he had left Ruth. The incident was as clearly etched on his brain as it had been when he stood and heard her amazing declaration.