“Tell me the secret!” commanded the girl.

“Oh, yes, Renie! but I’ve a condition.”

“A condition?  What condition would you exact?”

“You must become my wife.  There, the thing’s out; so now, what have you got to say?”

“I say, no!”

“That’s your decision?”

“That’s my decision.”

“Be careful, gal.  I only asked you to marry a me to give you a chance; remember you’re nobody’s child, and I’ve hooked on to the secret.”

“You’re a mean man, Sol Burton, to threaten me!”

“Well, the fact is, Renie, I like you!  I’m dead in love with you, and I’m willing to marry yer, and that’s more than most of the fellows round here would do, knowing all I know.”

“Good-night, Sol Burton, I’ll not stop to talk with you, nor will I tell my father that you said insulting words to me.”

“What do you suppose I care about Tom Pearce?  I can whisper a few words in his ear that will take some of the starch out of him!  He’s been mighty uppish about you, although he’s let you run round the beach barefoot these sixteen years.”

“Go talk to Tom Pearce, and do not be the coward to repeat your threats to me!”

The girl started to move away, when the man suddenly leaped forward and grasped her in his arms, but the same instant he received a blow which sent him reeling, as the girl was snatched from his rude grasp.

A curse fell from the man’s lips, and he arose to his feet and advanced toward the man who had struck him.

“Run home, little girl!” whispered the detective; “I will take care of this brute!”

“Thank you!” said the girl, and she glided away along the beach.

“See here, you’re the man who struck me?”

“Yes; I’m the man.”

“I think I’ve seen you before.”

“I think we’ve met before.”

“What did you hit me for?”

“I struck you because you put your hands rudely upon the girl.”

“Yer did, eh?”

“Yes.”

The man leaned toward the detective with the remark: 

“Well, it’s my turn now!”

And his turn it proved to be, as he received a rap, which caused him to turn clean over.

Sol Burton was raving mad when he once more regained his feet; the fellow was an ugly chap, a great bully ashore, and a cruel heartless man afloat.  As he arose he exclaimed: 

“All right, you’re fixed for me to-night; but my time will come!  I’ll get square with you before you’re much older!”

Sol Burton turned and walked away a baffled man.

Spencer Vance walked to the point on the beach where he had stood when the girl had come to him with the strange warning.

The young man was a Government officer, a special detective, and had been assigned to the collector at the port of New York to run down an organized gang of smugglers who were known to be doing a large business off the Long Island coast.