Lady Saxondale proceeded to relate the history of Philip Quentin’s achievement.  Instead of sailing for New York, he surrendered to his overpowering love and fell to work perfecting the preposterous plan that had come to him as a vision in the final hour of despair.  There was but little time in which to act, and there was stubborn opposition to fight against.  The Saxondales were the only persons to whom he could turn, and not until after he had fairly fought them to earth did they consent to aid him in the undertaking.  There remained to perform, then, the crowning act in this apparently insane transaction.  The stealing of a woman on whom the eyes of all the world seemed riveted was a task that might well confound the strategy of the most skillful general, but it did not worry the determined American.

Wisely he chose the wedding day as the best on which to carry out his project.  The hulla-balloo that would follow the nonappearance of the bride would throw the populace and the authorities into a state of confusion that might last for hours.  Before they could settle down to a systematic search, the bold operator would be safely in the last place they would suspect, an English lord’s playhouse in the valley of the Alzette.  Nothing but the most audacious daring could hope to win in such an undertaking.  When Mrs. Garrison’s coachman and footman came forth in all their august splendor on the night of the wedding, they were pounced upon by three men, overpowered, bound and locked in a small room in the stables.  One of the desperadoes calmly approached the servants’ quarters, presented a bold face (covered with whiskers), and said he had come for Miss Garrison’s trunks.  Almost insane with the excitement of the occasion, the servants not only escorted him to the bride’s room, but assisted him in carrying two trunks downstairs.  He was shrewd enough to ascertain which trunk was most needed, and it was thrown into a buggy and driven away by one of the trio.

When the carriage stopped for the first time to permit the masked man to thrust his revolver into the faces of the occupants, the trunk was jerked from that same buggy and thrown to the boot of the larger vehicle.  Of course, having absolute control of the carriage, it was no trick, if luck attended, for the new coachman and footman to drive away with the unsuspecting bride and her companions.  It is only the ridiculously improbable projects that are successful, it has been said.  Certainly it was proven in this case.  It is not necessary to tell the full story, except to say that the masked man who appeared at the carriage door in the little side street was Quentin; that the foot-man was Dickey Savage, the driver Turk.  In the exchange of clothing with the deposed servants of Mrs. Garrison, however, Turk fell into a suit of livery big enough for two men of his stature.