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Rh rejoin his fortunes to those of Alan Law, it was best to be fortified in every conceivable way before delivering himself anew to a career of peril and privation.

The information he garnered from Mr. Digby over the telephone shook only momentarily Barcus's conviction that intimate acquaintance with battle, murder, and sudden death was the inevitable reward of association with this friend of his heart.

"Alan being married to Rose Trine in Jersey City at this very minute!" he breathed, as he emerged from the booth memorizing the address of the officiating clergyman. "I don't believe it; the course of true love can't be running as smooth as all that. Why, its impossible! Alan hasn't ridden the tidal wave yet, nor tamed the bucking earthquake! He has thus far flirted with death in little more than two-score different forms; if this is his finish, he's a rank quitter—hardly half a hero!"

Forthwith he engaged a taxicab to convey him to Jersey City.

"I'd give my earldom," he asseverated, "rather than miss the eruption, or whatever it is, that is bound to take place just in time to crab this unnatural dénouement!"

And when he beheld a dense volume of smoke advertising a conflagration on the Jersey shore, he shook a sagacious head.