In the course of little over an hour, the carriage stopped at the inlet, where Fritz was told to get out and take a small boat and row across the water to the other shore, where he would find another carriage to complete his journey in.
He accordingly did as directed, and had soon crossed the inlet, found the second carriage, and was once more rolling northward, along the sandy beach.
It seemed hours to him ere his conductor drew rein in front of a jutting bluff which interrupted their further progress along the beach, from the fact that it reached to the water's edge; for another hour he followed the driver, a grim, uncommunicative fisherman, on foot up a jagged path, which finally led into a lonely ocean cave which the high tides of many centuries had washed out to about the size of an ordinary room. A torch thrust in a crevice in the rocky wall, lit up the scene in rather a ghostly way.
About in the center of the cave stood three parties—Madge, a clerical-looking party, and another well-dressed man, with black hair and full beard.
He stepped forward as Fritz and the fisherman entered the cave, and said:
"Ah! I am glad you have come. Was fearing that you would not accommodate us, sir."
"Vel, I didn't vas know vedder to come or not," Fritz answered, "but ash I am here, vot you want off me?"
"I will tell you. The young lady yonder and myself are about to be married, and, to make things legal, we prefer to have a couple of witnesses to the ceremony. You will only be required to attach your signature to the marriage certificate, and will then be taken back to Atlantic City."
"Vel, off dot ish all, go ahead mit der pizness," Fritz said, perching himself on a rock. "I don'd know off id is a legal dransaction or not, but I'll do vot ish right by der lady."
"Then let's have the ceremony," the prospective bridegroom said. "Are you ready, Madge?"