Why should not she tell Commander Hull the truth!

She rose and smoothed her ruffled gown.  A swift look from the window revealed that the road was clear.  Inez began tugging at the door.  It resisted her efforts, but she renewed the battle with all the fury of her youthful strength.  Finally the flimsy lock gave a bit beneath her efforts; a narrow slit appeared between the door and jamb in which she forced her hands and thus secured a great purchase.  Then, one foot against the wall, she tugged and pried and pulled until, with a sudden crack, the bar to liberty sprang open.

She was free.

Just across the Plaza the custom house looked down at her, the late sun glinting redly on its tiles.  There, no doubt, she would find Commander Hull.  She hastened forward.

“Not so fast, my dear!”

A hand fell on her shoulder rudely.  With, a gasp she looked up at McTurpin.

Beside the gambler, whose eyes burned angrily, Inez perceived a tall, lean, bearded stranger.

“Let me go!” she demanded.

“I have brought the parson,” said McTurpin.  “We can be married at once.”

“I—­I—­let us wait a little,” stammered Inez.

“Why?” the gambler asked suspiciously.  “Where were you going?”

“Nowhere,” she evaded, “for a walk—­”

“Well, you can walk back to the hotel, my lady,” said McTurpin.  “I have little time to waste.  And there’s Benito to consider,” he concluded.  Suddenly he put an arm about her waist and kissed her.  Inez thought of her brother and tried to submit.  But she could not repress a little cry of aversion, of fear.  The bearded man stepped forward.  “Hold up a bit, partner,” he drawled.  “This doesn’t look quite regular.  Don’t you wish to marry him, young lady?”

“Of course she does,” McTurpin blustered.  “She rode all the way in from her mother’s ranch to be my wife.”  He glared at Inez.  “Isn’t it true?” he flung at her.  “Tell him.”

She nodded her head miserably.  But the stranger was not satisfied.  “Let go of her,” he said, and when McTurpin tailed to heed the order, sinewy fingers on the gambler’s wrist enforced it.

“Now, tell me, Miss, what’s wrong?” the bearded one invited.  “Has this fellow some hold on you?  Is he forcing you into this marriage?”

Again the girl nodded dumbly.

“She lies,” said McTurpin, venomously, but the words were scarcely out of his mouth before the stranger’s fist drove them back.  McTurpin staggered.  “Damn you!” he shouted, “I teach you to meddle between a man and his woman.”

Inez saw something gleam in his hand as the two men sprang upon each other.  She heard another blow, a groan.  Screaming, she fled uphill toward the custom house.

CHAPTER X

Hull “Capitulates”

Like a startled deer, Inez Windham fled from McTurpin and the stranger, her little, high-heeled slippers sinking unheeded into the horse-trodden mire of Portsmouth Square, her silk skirt spattered and soiled; her hair, freed from the protecting mantilla, blowing in the searching trade wind.  Thus, as Commander Hull sat upon the custom house veranda, reading the latest dispatch from Captain Ward, she burst upon him—­a flushed, disheveled, lovely vision with fear-stricken eyes.