“Thank you again,” said Madge gratefully.  “It was very thoughtful in you to send a message to our friends.  In the morning we wish to go first to the Belleview Hotel.  We wish to see a friend of ours who is staying there.  Her name is Mrs. Curtis.”

“Mrs. Curtis is an old friend of mine,” said Judge Hilliard in pleased surprise.  “I have known her ever since I was a little boy.  Now I have something to say to you that may interest you.  I told you I was a judge.  It is my business to look into people’s legal difficulties.  This trouble which concerns your friend looks to me as though it might have a legal side to it.  We are in the State of Maryland.  Fisherman’s Island is in my jurisdiction.  Suppose I issue an injunction forbidding the marriage between Mollie and the sailor, and take you up to the island in the morning to see it served.  I have a steam yacht, and I think I shall take along two court officers or policemen, who will terrify your dreadful Captain Mike.  At any rate, I’ll see justice done his afflicted daughter, if I have to take the law in my own hands.”

Madge clapped her hands joyously.  Tears stood in Phil’s dark eyes.  “Oh, how splendid!” she breathed.

At this juncture Mrs. Hilliard entered the library, and after a little further talk the two girls announced themselves as being quite ready to retire.

“Be ready at seven o’clock,” Judge Hilliard reminded them, as he bade his guests good night.  “We shall reach Captain Mike’s shanty boat before he has time to proceed with the marriage.  They won’t expect you at your houseboat until after breakfast, and I hope to have three girls to deliver aboard, instead of two.”

Phyllis and Madge dropped asleep that night the instant their heads touched their pillows.  They had asked to share the same room, and as they had sleepily undressed, they congratulated each other on the fact that Mike Muldoon’s cowardly act had resulted in nothing but good to them.  It looked as though it might even prove a boomerang to him.

By seven o’clock the next morning the girls had breakfasted and said good-bye to Mrs. Hilliard, after promising to visit her at some future time.

“Judge Hilliard,” announced Madge, as the yacht “Greyhound” steamed out from the pier, “we forgot to tell you last night that we think Mollie is old enough to come away from her father if she wishes.  She doesn’t know how old she is.  That is one of the queer things about Mollie.  She seems quite sensible until you ask her to recall something, and then she becomes confused.  Still, I am sure she is several years older than either Phil or I.”

The shanty boat colony on the east side of Fisherman’s Island had also risen early on this warm morning in July.  Bill crossed over to the mainland in his sailboat to bring a Justice of the Peace back with him to marry him to Mollie.  Captain Mike was determined to have his way with his daughter.  Once she was married to Bill, her new friends would find it difficult to get her away from him.