But the winter wind bore to their ears the sound of Geraldine's awful cries, and their feet seemed winged, as, headed by Hawthorne, they rushed up the lane and threw themselves altogether against the locked door. It yielded and fell in with their united weight, tumbling all together upon the kitchen floor. But each sprang to his feet and followed the sound of those frantic shrieks up a rickety stair-way to another locked door. "Now all together again, lads--push!" shouted Hawthorne, and under the strong onslaught the second door yielded, the lock fell off, and they were on the scene of action. And, oh, what a scene! Clifford Standish and the old woman had dragged Geraldine from her chair, despite her desperate shrieks and struggles, and were holding her up between them, while the half-drunken justice mumbled over the words of the marriage service. The conspirators, thus taken by surprise, dropped their victim and turned to fly, but the clubs of the agile policemen quickly strewed the floor with three groaning wretches. As for Hawthorne, he thought only of Geraldine. She flew to him, and he clasped her in his arms, crying: "Oh, my love, my love! I have come to save you!" It was a tender meeting, but its pathos was quite lost on Norris and the policemen, who were busy putting handcuffs on the three prisoners, whose dose of clubs had reduced them to a dazed condition that made them easy to conquer. The surprise had been a complete one, and extremely successful--so much so that all three of the conspirators were taken away as prisoners by the jubilant Norris and the two policemen. And, to dispose of the subject at once, we may add that all three were committed to jail, had a speedy trial, and were convicted of kidnaping and conspiracy. An indignant judge and jury awarded them the severest sentence under the law, and they were sent to prison for a long term of years during which their energies were expended in labor for the State of Illinois. * * * * * It would be too great a task to describe the joy of the Fitzgerald household that evening when Harry Hawthorne restored Geraldine to her home, or their grief and indignation when they learned the terrible persecutions she had suffered. Mrs. Fitzgerald's gratitude to Harry Hawthorne was boundless. She scarcely remembered the existence of the English nobleman, whose title she had so ardently desired for Geraldine. She realized how true was Hawthorne's affection when she saw him weep the bitterest tears over the cruel bruises that for several days empurpled the poor girl's face and hands--marks of the brutal blows she had been given by Jane Crabtree while trying to force her consent to marry Clifford Standish. "He loves her with the devotion of a noble heart, and I will not stand between them, even though he is only a poor fireman. Besides, he really saved her life from those murderous wretches, and it belongs to him," she thought, generously.