shed over the
ridge of the sierra which hemmed in the eastern side of the valley, when
Arima, awaking with a most atrocious headache, and the feeling generally
of a man who has just passed through an unusually prolonged bout of
dissipation--or, alternatively, has been drugged--arose from his bed
and, staggering across the room, plunged his throbbing and buzzing head
into a large basin of cold water, preparatory to dressing. Once, twice,
thrice did he plunge head, neck, and hands into the cooling liquid, with
but little satisfactory result, for the relief which he sought, and
confidently expected to derive, from the process, refused to come; and
he groaned as he sank upon a seat and tightly gripped his throbbing
temples in his hands. Never before in his life had he felt so ill, so
utterly cheap and used-up, as he did at that moment. In addition to the
violent headache from which he was suffering, his blood felt like fire
in his veins, his skin was dry and rough; he was so giddy that he could
scarcely stand. The truth was that he had been drugged with such brutal
severity on the preceding night, by Xaxaguana's emissaries, to make sure
of his being out of the way at the moment of his master's seizure, that
it had been due more to chance than anything else that he had ever again
awakened. After a few minutes' rest he felt so much better that he was
able to dress, and afterwards make his way to his master's room. For,
ever since the slaying of the monsters in the lake, it had been
Escombe's habit to rise early in the morning, and, making his way to the
bottom of the garden, embark on a balsa, from which, after Arima had
paddled it a few hundred yards from the shore, master and man had been
wont to bathe together. And now, according to custom, the faithful
Indian hurried away to awaken his master, as usual, for indulgence in
the regular morning dip.

But upon entering the sleeping chamber he of course found it untenanted,
and for a moment the thought occurred to him that possibly he was late,
and that his master, having awakened at his usual hour, had risen and
gone down into the garden alone. A single glance out of the window,
however, at the length of the shadows cast by the various objects
lighted by the sun outside, sufficed to satisfy him that habit had
triumphed over even the influence of the narcotic which had been
administered to him, and that he was certainly not more than a few
minutes late. Then, with the