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O'REILLY TALKS HOG LATIN
In the days that followed his call on Ignacio Alvarado, O'Reilly
behaved so openly that the Secret Service agent detailed to watch
him relaxed his vigilance. Certainly there was nothing suspicious
in the conduct of a fellow who sat all the morning tipped back in
a hotel chair, languidly scanning the passers-by, whose afternoons
were spent on the streets or at the soda-fountain in Martin's
drug-store, and whose evenings were devoted to aimless gossip with
his countryman, the newspaper writer. Manifestly this O'Reilly was
a harmless person. But the spy did not guess how frantic Johnnie
was becoming at this delay, how he inwardly chafed and fretted
when two weeks had rolled by and still no signal had come. Manin
told him to be patient; he assured him that word had been sent
into the Cubitas hills, and that friends were busy in his behalf;
but Johnnie was eager to be up and doing. This inaction paralyzed
him; it made him almost ill to think how much time had slipped
away. Then, too, his money was running low.
At last, however, the day arrived when the man with the gray
necktie raised his hat and wiped his brow as he passed the Isla de
Cuba. Johnnie could scarcely hold himself in his chair. By and by
he rose, stretching himself, and sauntered after the fellow.
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