"I am sorry to interrupt this party, ladies, but I have an order here authorizing me to take Mrs. De Jarnette and child into custody and bring them to the City of Washington, D. C."
"An order from whom?" demanded Margaret.
"From the guardian of this child, Mr. Richard De Jarnette."
"You may go back to Mr. Richard De Jarnette and tell him that I do not acknowledge his right to control either me or my child. I refuse to go."
When Mr. Smeltzer replied to this it was in a tone so reasonable and conciliatory and withal so earnest that it alarmed Mrs. Pennybacker more than bluster would have done.
"I hope you will not persist in that decision, Mrs. De Jarnette. It will be far better for you in the end to go back peaceably with me. Mr. De Jarnette has had men on the search for this child for nearly five years. You can depend upon it that he will not give him up now that he is found. But—it may be that when you see him and talk it over with him you may be able to come to some sort of a compromise about it."
"See here, Smeltzer," said Harcourt, "you can't bulldoze us in any such way as this! You haven't the power to take Mrs. De Jarnette or her child back to Washington on an order from any private individual, and you know it. If you propose to arrest her you'll have to show a warrant for it. Isn't that right, Captain?"
"That's right, sir," replied the captain, who was an interested spectator.
"I haven't said anything about arresting her, have I?" demanded Smeltzer. "I am trying to persuade her to go peaceably without any such humiliation."
"You may as well give it up," she said, "for I shall never go."