New-York tribune., 1910-07-17
By Kari Deck er
Drawings by Arthur William Brown

carrying, foppish young circling always to the
left and wondered lazily how many other rOmanCes
were developing out there IN the plaza.
Then as the crowd frayed out and gradually dis
appeared and the rustling royal palms whispered
alone to another across the vacant benches, he
rose, dragged his chair inside his room, and went
down through the deserted patio for last word with
Don Jose, the of the hotel, before turning IN
But Don Jose strangely enough, was busy with
guest 1t was rarely that guest came at such an
hour; but 1t evident that this was guest OF dis
tlnCtOn. His spurs at least two inches across,
and his tiny feet looked like automobile wheels
without rims. He wore a Panama hat the cost OF
which would have kept a family IN comfort IN Las
Piedras for year and rich heavy. silk riding cloak
was draped daintily about his shoulders
He looks pretty enough to enter IN dog show,
said Blake to Portal waiter of the Hotel TELEGRAPH:
Portal lOunging in the door of the patio, shrugged
his shoulders noncommittally. He is a grand
senior ''he said.
He may be a grand senor. all right: said Blake;
but who is he2
Portal did not know. He regretted his ignorance;
but the late guest was much mystery to him as
to Don Jose. 4 later investigation OF the register
revealed nothing for the was the common
one of ROdrigues, which Is though 1t had been
Brown or Smith IN American town.
Having always III the back of his mind the ap-
prehension of possible conspacies of nsurrecton
ay sort which might disturb his tat and placid peace
Blake was curious; but carefully He determined
to learn all that to be learned of the mysterious
Rodrigues the following day.
EARLY the next morning while the sun
L. slanting almost level into his room, Blake
wrapped himself in the folds of bathrobe and
stepped the gallery that ran round the patio
huge block of ice pair Of icetongs and hatchet
had been placed in front of his door only few min
r1tes before for Blake, among his other activities,
was the iceman of the town The only ice plant in
that part of the world belonged to him, and he in
du1ged himself in the luxury of a refrigerator and
daily cold shower.
Splitting of the greater part of the block of ice,
Blake gr1Pped 1t the tongs and swung away to the
huge bathroom at the corner Of the patio gallery.
There he chopped the block into small pieces and
tossed them into the shower tank over his head.
Then when he had finished his bath, he jerked the
rope of the shower with sense of sheer happiness
for that deluge of ice cold the most bracing
and exhiarating thing in ali Las Pedras. 1t fitted
him for the work of the day and kept him keyed up
to the pitch he needed to handle the many enter
priseS he was interested IN.
Glad in immaculate white ducks and with the ap-
- petite of q wolf Blake, half an hour later was
lust seating himself before the table on which had
been placed silver tray containing stean1ng coffee,
fruit and delicate white rolls, when piercing,
agOnizing veil shot through the hotel with all the
dernoralizing effect of a six-inCh shell through a
crOc6ery store window.
There was only one cry; but it brought every man