Thenceforward the nephew watched the uncle incessantly; during his absence he stole into his room, opened his baggage, and examined his drawers.  And if he saw him near Clara at table, or when refreshments were handed around, he never took his eyes off him.

But he could not be always at hand.  One day the two men rode to the city in company.  Garcia dodged Coronado, hastened back to the hacienda, asked to have some chocolate prepared, poured out a cup for Clara, looked at her eagerly while she drank it, and then fell down in a fit.

An hour later Coronado returned at a full run, to find the old man just recovering his senses and Clara alarmingly ill.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Clara had been taken ill while waiting on the unconscious Garcia, and the attack had been so violent as to drive her at once to her room and bed.

The first person whom Coronado met when he reached the house was Aunt Maria, oscillating from one invalid to the other in such fright and confusion that she did not know whether she was strong-minded or not; but thus far chiefly troubled about Garcia, who seemed to her to be in a dying state.

“Your uncle!” she exclaimed, beckoning wildly to Coronado as he rushed in at the door.

“I know,” he answered hastily.  “A servant told me.  How is Clara?”

He was as pale as a man of his dark complexion could be.  Aunt Maria caught his alarm, and, forgetting at once all about Garcia, ran on with him to Clara’s room.  The girl was just then in one of her spasms, her features contracted and white, and her forehead covered with a cold sweat.

“What is it?” whispered Mrs. Stanley, clutching Coronado by the arm and staring eagerly at his anxious eyes.

“It is—­fever,” he returned, making a great effort to control his rage and terror.  “Give her warm water to drink.  My God! give her something.”

He sent three servants in succession to search for three different physicians swearing at them violently while they made their preparations, telling them to ride like the devil, to kill their horses, etc.  When he returned to Clara’s room she had come out of her paroxysm, and was feebly trying to smile away Aunt Maria’s terrors.

“My cousin!” he whispered in unmistakable anguish of spirit.

“I am better,” she replied.  “Thank you, Coronado.  How is Garcia?”

Coronado looked as if he were devoting some one to the infernal furies; but he suppressed his emotion and replied in a smothered voice, “I will go and see.”

Hurrying to his uncle’s room, he motioned out the attendants, closed the door, locked it, and then, with a scowl of rage and alarm, advanced upon the invalid, who by this time was perfectly conscious.

“What have you given her?” demanded Coronado, in a hoarse mutter.

“I don’t know what you mean,” stammered the old man.  He shut his one eye, not because he could not keep it open, but to evade the conflict which was coming upon him.