In spite of their anxiety to receive any possible news of the Ramona,
which the incoming steamer might bring, the girls went to their rooms
for a siesta after the meal--a habit that had really been forced on
them, not only by the customs, but by the climate of the place. It
was actually too warm to go about in the middle of the day, and
especially now, since the sun had come out exceedingly hot after the
storm. Jack and Walter, however, declared that they were going down
to the marina to get the earliest possible news.
As it chanced, the girls remaining at the hotel were the first to
hear that which made so great a difference to them.
Cora, Bess and Belle, with Inez, whose head had stopped aching, came
down about four o'clock, dressed for a stroll. There was to be a
band concert in one of the public park--the first in several days.
As they went up to the desk to leave their keys, they saw standing
talking to the clerk a very stout man, at the sight of whom Inez drew
back behind Cora.
"It is him--him again," she whispered.
"Who?"
"Zat man--Senor Ramo--I do not like zat he should see me."
"Oh, you mustn't be so timid," declared Jack's sister. "He won't
harm you."
"No, but my father--"
"I think you are mistaken, Inez!" went on Cora. "At any rate, he has
seen us--he remembers us as from having come out on the same steamer
with us," for Senor Ramo was now bowing, and is smile spread itself
over his oily and expansive countenance.
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