getting ready to go out to bring ashore the passengers and freight.

As it would probably be some time before the ship came to anchor out
in the harbor, the boys and girls went back to the hotel, for it was
approaching the dinner hour.

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?"