Roque and the doctors loosened their hold of William Penrose when they heard the new voice. Then Roque in a supercilious tone said, “You had better attend to your business if you have any.”

He clutched his cousin once more.

“Let us lose no time,” he whispered to the doctors.

“Look here!” said the miner, striding to the group, “you’re trying to kidnap an inoffensive man, and are going clear against the law. This is a free country, and it can’t be done.”

“Sir,” said Roque, “this is an escaped lunatic, and I propose to carry him back to the asylum. I don’t owe you any explanation, but I don’t mind telling you that. Now, get out of the way!”

“He’s no more a lunatic that I am.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Penrose, with reviving hope. “It is a cruel attempt at abduction. Save me from a fate worse than death.”

“I will!” responded the Yankee miner resolutely.

“No man is going to be abducted when Josh Staekpole is around.”

“Clear out!” said James Roque, incensed.

“Clear out, or——”

“Or what?”

“I’ll have you arrested.”

“And I’d have you lynched if you were out in Colorado.”

“You are officious and impertinent.”

“Call me all the hard names you like, squire. It won’t do me any harm.”

“I will do you harm. Landlord, are you going to permit this impertinent person to interfere with me?”

“Really, gentlemen, I don’t know what to say,” answered the landlord, who was a weak and vacillating man. “If I knew the law——”

“I’ll tell you what the law is,” said the miner. “Before I went out West I spent a year in a law office at Burlington, Vermont. These men haven’t shown any papers—they haven’t proved this gentleman to be out of his mind. It’s just a high-handed violation of the law they are trying.”

“In that case, I guess you’d better stop,” said the landlord. “This gentleman is probably right, and——”

“He’s a fool!” interposed Roque angrily.

“Haven’t these eminent physicians declared my cousin to be a lunatic?”

“They look more like tramps than eminent physicians,” remarked Joshua Stackpole.

“We have wasted time enough with this fool,” said Roque. “Dr. Brown, take one arm, and you, Dr. Jones, take the other, and we will soon put an end to this foolery.”

“Do it at your peril!” exclaimed Joshua Stackpole sternly.

The doctors looked somewhat apprehensive, but at a nod from James Roque, and confident in the realization that they were three to one, they proceeded to obey orders. Then something unexpected happened.

Joshua Stackpole sprang upon James Roque and pitched him headlong from the piazza. Then he started for Dr. Brown, and that luckless physician followed his principal.

The miner was about to turn his attention to Dr. Jones when the latter threw up his hands and begged for mercy.

“This is an outrage!” exclaimed Mr. Snowdon, much disconcerted. “Isn’t there a constable at hand, landlord, to arrest this bold ruffian? Bernard Brooks, I want you.”

“Aha!” said Stackpole, “what do you want him for? Is he another lunatic?”

“No; but he is my pupil, who has rebelled against my lawful authority, and run away from his happy home at Snowdon Institute.”

“How is that, sonny?” asked Joshua Stackpole.

“He tried to horsewhip me,” said Bernard.

“And I will do it yet,” cried Mr. Snowdon, with more anger than prudence.

“Ha! It seems there is more work for me to do. You are an old man, and I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t get into your wagon and hurry home, I’ll——”

Joshua Stackpole looked so determined that Mr. Snowdon was alarmed.

“Come, Septimus,” he said; “we’d better be going. I’ll go to a magistrate and get a warrant for this man’s arrest.”

By this time James Roque had risen from his recumbent position.

“Dr. Brown and Dr. Jones,” he exclaimed in a passion, “are we to be worsted by a single man? Seize William Penrose.”

“Excuse me!” said Dr. Brown, rubbing his shins.

“And me, too!” added Dr. Jones, with an apprehensive look at Joshua Stackpole.

“Sir,” said James Roque, addressing Mr. Snowdon, “as I can get no help from these cowards, will you lend me your co-operation?”

“I wish you success, sir,” replied Snowdon hurriedly, “but I ought to return to Snowdon Institute, where my presence is imperatively required.”

“I think, squire, you’d better give it up for a bad job,” said Stackpole. “If you make another attempt to abduct this man I’ll treat you worse than before.”

With a look of baffled rage James Roque entered his carriage, followed by the two doctors.

“You have escaped this time,” he said to William Penrose, “but I will have you yet.”

Penrose shuddered as he saw the evil look on his cousin’s face.

“I’ve got something to say to that, squire,” remarked

Joshua Stackpole coolly. “Do you see that?” and he displayed a revolver.

“Don’t shoot!” exclaimed James Roque, falling back, his face assuming a sickly pallor.

“I don’t intend to—now,” said Stackpole composedly, “but I can’t answer for what I would do if I heard of your trying to abduct your cousin.”

“I should like to lock you up in an insane asylum,” said Roque, with an ugly look.

“So you think me insane, do you?”

“You are stark, staring mad!”

“Thank you, squire. If I should happen to shoot you accidentally, that’ll let me off.”

James Roque did not think it wise to reply, but drove off hurriedly.

“My friend,” said Penrose, offering his hand, “you have done me a great favor. But for you that man would have carried me to an asylum.”

“What is his object?”

“Unfortunately I am rich and he is poor. As a near relative, he wants to get control of my property. Your brave interference has saved me.”

“Don’t mention it! There wasn’t anything brave about it. The whole pack of them are cowards. Have those doctors ever seen you before?”

“Never.”

“Yet after a mere glance they are ready to pronounce you insane. I don’t believe they are doctors at all.”

“Nor I. They are tools of my cousin. But nothing is easier than to throw a sane man into an asylum on the evidence of such creatures.”

“They’d have a lively time making out me to be insane.”

“James Roque says you are stark, staring mad,” said Penrose, with a smile.

“He’d have reason to think so if I got hold of him,” returned Stackpole grimly. “And now, my friend. I am going to give you a piece of advice.”

“What is it?”

“Get out of this as soon as you can. There’s an ugly look about your cousin’s face, and he may make you trouble yet. Of course, he has no legal right to interfere with you, but that won’t stop a man like him. He hasn’t got hold of your property yet?”

“No.”

“Then if you have money at command, go off where he will not be able to track you. Why not go to Europe, or to Colorado, my State? If he tried any of his tricks there, we’d soon stop him with a rope.”

“Your advice is good and I will follow it. But I don’t like to leave my young friend here. He, too, is in a tight place.”

“Don’t trouble about him. I’ll look after him for a time. It will be better for you to part, as your cousin will probably describe you as traveling in his company.”

“All right! I will make my way at once to New York and take passage for Europe. I have long intended to go there, and this is a favorable opportunity. But I must first show my good will to Bernard by offering him this.”

He drew a ten-dollar bill from his pocketbook and handed it to Bernard.

“Ought I to take so much, Mr. Penrose?” asked Bernard, in a tone of hesitation.

“I am rich. I can spare it,” said William Penrose. “You need not hesitate.”

“Then, I will take it with thanks, for I have got to make my own way, and I have no one to depend upon. My guardian will be angry when he learns that I have run away from Mr. Snowdon.”

“You can adopt me for your guardian for a short time,” said Mr. Stackpole. “And now I move that we get away from Poplar Plains as soon as possible.” A carriage was secured, and within fifteen minutes the three were on their way to the nearest railroad station.