He tossed a piece of silver to one who wailed in the ditch,--a forlorn
stranger from Hai-nan, lamenting the broken shells and empty baskets of
his small venture.--"Contribution, you chaps. A bad day for imported
cocoanuts. Wish I carried some money: this chit system is
damnable.--Meanwhile, doctor, won't you forget anything I was rude
enough to say? And come join me in a peg at the club? The heat is
excessive."
CHAPTER X
THREE PORTALS
Not till after dinner, that evening, did Rudolph rouse from his stupor.
With the clerk, he lay wearily in the upper chamber of Heywood's house.
The host, with both his long legs out at window, sat watching the smoky
lights along the river, and now and then cursing the heat.
"After all," he broke silence, "those cocoanuts came time enough."
"Didn't they just?" said Nesbit, jauntily; and fingering the plaster
cross on his wounded forehead, drawled: "You might think I'd done a bit
o' dueling myself, by the looks.--But I had _some_ part. Now, that
accident trick. Rather neat, what? But for me, you might never have
thought o' that--"
"Idiot!" snapped Heywood, and pulling in his legs, rose and stamped
across the room.
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