The driver turned in his seat at this point, his cue in the mad
farce having been given, and opened speech with many gestures,
whereupon Carroll arose and embraced him warmly. And with this
grouping, the vehicle, bearing its lunatic load, sped around the
corner and disappeared, while the sole interested witness retired
to obscurity, with her reeling head between her hands.
One final touch of phantasy was given to the whole affair when,
two hours later, she met Carroll, soiled and grimy, coming across
the plaza, smoking--he, the addict to thirty-cent Havanas!--an
awful native cheroot, whose incense spread desolation about him.
Further and more extraordinary, when she essayed to obtain a
solution of the mystery from him, he repelled her with emphatic
gestures and a few half-strangled words with whose
unintelligibility the cheroot fumes may have had some connection,
and hurried into the hotel, where he remained in seclusion the
rest of the day.
What in the name of all the wonders could it mean? On Mr.
Brewster's return, she laid the matter before him at the dinner
table.
"Touch of the sun, perhaps," he hazarded.
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