Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-07-21
By F. A.

beginning ID Uuu. line time or Gay s
Don after dawn. Nothing could be
more quiet than this scene Just emerg-
ing from darkness. tine old Queen Anne
mansion and It's surroundings. A door
opens slowly, and a woman slips out,
closing 1t cautiously behind her. She
fits down the walk to the gate, opens
1t, passes through. closes It behind her
with the same care as she had closed
the door, takes one glance at the SOM
Der mansion and walks away with a
quick step, which soon Increases to a
run.
The morning light ~hroadens, a red
spark appears on the eastern sky line,
the spark developing into disk. Smoke
begins to curl lazi1y from a chimney
here and there. A man energies from
a rear door of a house and goes back
toward q barn. The escaped woman
calls to him. He stops, turns and goes
back to the fence ON the other side of
which she is standing.
Are you married" she asks.
Married? Why, no." Naturally. the
question surprises him.
"If you will marry me III give you
any price you ask"
"PriceY Why a lady--a girlEcome-
ly, should pay a cnmmon farmer to
marry her was unintelligfble.
yes. But / wouldn't want you to
live with me I'd want 10 leave you as
soon as the ceremony was performed.
VIII your"
The matter having become a com
merc1al transaction, the mans mind
fell upon the possible gain to him. He
asked how he would be benefited. She
asked him to name a price he named
f1O0- She doubled It.
Where can we find a clergymmrs
she asked. |
He pointed 10 q spire standing above
the tree tops.
"Cnme," abe said, "make haste" 4
Climbing the fence, he walked be-
side her toward the spire till they
came to a little church Nesting under
the trees and knocked at the door Of
the rectory beside It A man, twenty
eight or thirty years old, In canonicals,
came to the door.
Marry us, quicki" said the girl
Come In" said the clergyman, as
touished to see a lady and a farmland
asking to be welded. They were
shown into a living room, and the
clergyman said:
II cannot marry you without some
information concerning such a singu-
lar case"
The girl gave It hurriedly. She was
an orphan and an heiress. Her guard
ian. q ma OF fifty and q rascal, ives
fryblg lu .1re her tIm
fore she esime Of age, which would be
IN a few months. He Tad represented
that she was not Of sound mind, and
he was keeping her under guard. She
had escaped despite his watching, but
would doubtless be overtaken and car
fan's side. As a married woman,
through her husband, she could claim
her freedom. The rector listened to
her explanation, pondered a few MIN
utes, then said:
~ fancy 1 can get you out Of your
trouble without this marriage. which
win bring complications difficult to I'M
ravel. Suppose I hide your
"Can your VIII yUu?'-
"I can"
The girl told the man she had come
with that If he would stand by her
and not reveal her whereabouts she
would give him the money she bad
promised him to marry her. He was
an honest chap and said that he would
stand by her without being paid TO
do so.
AS soon as he had gone the clergy
man took the girl into the church and
PLACED her behind a curtain In the
chance1 Then be went back to the rec
tory. where he found breakfast watt
ing for him 1t vas not long before a
groom, mounted. rode up TO the rec
tory and. throwing himself from his
horse, knocked at the door. The rector
answered the and questions
as to whether ne had seen the escaped
girl Lying not being In keeping with
his sacred Office he excited suspicion.
The groom rode Gway leaving the rec
tor cnncincHd TINT he would report his
suspicious, and the church and rectury
would be searched Going into the
chIrrch, he informed the girl Of her
danger. She WIS beside herself with
terrur.
81 VIII take the pfRce," be said, "of
the mln who agrHed to marry you, but
without price, and win cunsent to an
amnfment at Snch time as you may
desire"
The gin 4 only too glad 90 avail
herself of his offer a servant was
sent post tmste for q Methodist minis
ter vino lived q short distance from
them He came. thu servants were
called as Witnesses, and the two were
legally married.
The ceremony had scarcely been dp-
istfed when a gentleman was driven up
to the rectnry and demanded in the
name or the iaxV tn Saaprh the uren-