This is the Cuban leap-year,
Johnnie; Norine proposed to him and he was too far gone to refuse.
You came just in time to interrupt a drum-head marriage."
"Is it true?" When Norine acquiesced, O'Reilly pressed her two
hands in his. "I'm glad--so glad." Tears started to the girl's
eyes; her voice broke wretchedly. "Help me, Johnnie! Help me to
get him home--"
He patted her reassuringly and she took comfort from his hearty
promise.
"Of course I will. We'll take him and Rosa away where they can
forget Cuba and all the misery it has caused them. We'll make him
well--don't worry. Meanwhile, at this moment Rosa needs food and
clothing, and so do I."
As the three friends walked up the street they discovered Jacket
holding the center of an interested crowd of his countrymen. It
was the boy's moment and he was making the most of it. Swollen
with self-importance, he was puffing with relish at a gigantic
gift cigar.
"I exaggerate nothing," he was saying, loudly. "O'Reilly will tell
you that I killed Cobo, alone and unassisted. The man is gone, he
has disappeared, and all Matanzas is mystified. This is the hand
that did it; yonder is the weapon, with that butcher's blood still
on it. That knife will be preserved in the museum at Habana, along
with my statue." Jacket spied his chief witness and called to him.
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