“Gee whiz!  We’ve got to do something.  Mr. Cortlandt will be getting worried.”

“In all probability he won’t know anything about it until too late to come for us.  He is dining with these people from Bocas, and may not get back to the Tivoli before midnight.”

“Nice fix we’re in!” remarked Anthony.  “I’d like to lay hands on that captain.”

“We may have to stay here all night!”

“Well, at least we have a haven of refuge.  They’ll take us in at the hospital.”

“I don’t care to ask them.  There’s some one up there I don’t wish to see.  That’s why I didn’t go near the place to-day.”

“You know best, of course.  But, see here, don’t you think you’d better go up there—­”

“Not for worlds!  We must find some other way.”  She began to pace back and forth in the dusk.  “How unfortunate it is!”

“Is it because—­I’m with you?” questioned the young man, with an effort.  “Is that why you don’t want to apply there?”

“No, no.  Stephen’s particular enemy is in charge up there.  I detest the man, and the feeling is mutual, I believe.”  She sighed, and her glance fell.  “We can’t spend the night outdoors.”

“Of course not, but—­”

“What?”

He laughed to hide his embarrassment.  “I’m wondering—­what people will say.”

“Oh, you mustn’t be troubled about that.  It isn’t your fault, you know, anyhow.  Besides, people won’t say anything because they won’t know anything about it—­if we stay away from that sanitarium.”

In the effort to put him at his ease, her own distress seemed to vanish, and Kirk immediately felt more cheerful.

“It’s getting along toward dinner-time,” he said, “so let’s see what we can find in the way of food.  You can be sheltered in one of these houses, I suppose, though from the looks I’d almost prefer the night air.”

They stumbled out into the unlighted street and began their search; but, seen close at hand, the cooking arrangements of Taboga proved most unattractive.  Outside the sanitarium, it seemed, there was not a stove on the island.  Charcoal braziers set upon the floors or in the dirt yards served all culinary purposes, and the process of preparing meals was conducted with an indifference that promised no savory results.  About the glowing points of light wrinkled hags appeared irregularly, as if brewing some witch’s broth, but they could not understand the phenomenon of Americans being hungry and signified no readiness to relieve them.  In several instances Kirk and Mrs. Cortlandt were treated with open suspicion.  But eventually they found a more pretentious-looking place, where they were taken in, and, after an interminable wait, food was set before them—­chicken, boiled with rice and cocoanut, black beans and cocoanut, fresh, warm milk, and a wondrous assortment of hothouse fruits.  They would have enjoyed the meal had it not been for the curious faces that blocked every aperture in the room and the many bright eyes that peered at them from each shadow.