"I ask no more," said Gowrie rubbing his hands and chuckling. "If Inspector Trent will come with me we can interrupt the marriage ceremony, which takes place to-morrow in the village church." "So soon. And the village?" "Wait till I have your handwriting," said Gowrie, smartly, "but to proceed with the epic. I went to this village, and saw Herries, and my daughter. He told me that he was innocent, and that he had procured a special license to marry my child. I objected, as I wanted him first to clear his name. He says he cannot do that----" "And no wonder," said Miss Tedder scornfully, "seeing that he is guilty of the crime." "Do you really believe that?" "Of course I do. Would I want him hanged if I did not believe him guilty?" "Weel," said Gowrie scratching his head, and applying himself again to a now nearly empty decanter, "wumen are kittle cattle." "Not Miss Tedder," chimed in Mrs. Mountford, "she is not one to bear false witness." "Well, then, to make a long story short," said Gowrie beginning to feel weary, and finding there was no chance of further strong drink, "my pride objected to my daughter wedding a criminal, and I came to ask you, Miss Tedder, to pay me the reward and come with me to Inspector Trent. To-morrow we can go to this village, and arrest this man. And heaven grant," added Gowrie piously, "that we may be in time to prevent the marriage." "Whether Angus is married or not matters very little," said his amiable cousin. "I want him tried by jury." "Weel," chuckled Gowrie becoming Scotch again, now that his story was ended. "Ye canna have him tried ony ither way, ye ken. But are ye sure that the mon is guilty?" "Certain. He was at the inn, and so was my father." "I wis there also, yet I'm innocent," said Gowrie, dryly. "You had no reason to kill my father, Angus had." "And what may that be?" "He knew that he would inherit the money if my father died." "How did he know that?" "Captain Kyles told me that he knew." "An' hoo did Captain Kyles ken?" "You had better ask him," snapped Maud, who seemed to regret having admitted as much, and who had been frowned upon by Mrs. Mountford. "Is he in the hoose?" "No. He is in London." "Nae, nae," chuckled the old man, prepared to throw a bombshell, "I ken weel where he is; a chield ca'd Sweetlips Kind tauld me, having been to the bit ship of him." "To the 'Tarabacca?'" "Aye,--at Pierside. The Captain's on board her, wi' the leddy he's gaun tae marry." Maud jumped up wrathfully. "He's engaged to me," she cried, and her baby face became convulsed with anger. "Nae, nae, young leddy, Kind tell't me, he wis tae be the joe o' a Mexican lady,---o'----" "Of Donna Maria Guzman," said Miss Tedder angrily; "that is untrue, Captain Kyles is to be my husband. Donna Maria is simply the daughter of the ex-President of Indiana, and came in the yacht to Pierside to do business with my father, and----"