h David stopped speaking, it seemed to Pepeeta as if a
sudden end had come to everything; as if rivers had ceased to run and
stars to rise and set. She drew a long, deep breath, sighed and sank
back in her seat, exhausted by the nervous tension to which she had been
subjected.

The effect upon the quack was hardly less remarkable. He, too, had
listened with breathless attention. He tried to analyze and then to
resist this mesmeric power, but gradually succumbed. He felt as if
chained to his seat, and it was only by a great effort that he pulled
himself together, took Pepeeta by the arm and drew her out into the open
air.

For a few moments they walked in silence, and then the doctor exclaimed:
"P-p-peeta, I have found him at last!"

"Found whom?" she asked sharply, irritated by the voice which offered
such a rasping contrast to the one still echoing in her ears.

"Found whom? As if you didn't know! I mean the man of d-d-destiny! He is
a snake charmer, Pepeeta! He just fairly b-b-bamboozled you! I was
laughing in my sleeve and saying to myself, 'He's bamboozled Pepeeta;
but he can't b-b-bamboozle me!' When he up and did it! Tee-totally did
it! And if he can bamboozle me, he can bamboozle anybody."

"Did you understand what he said?" Pepeeta asked.

"Understand? Well, I should say not! The d-d-devil himself couldn't make
head nor tail out of it. But between you and me and the town p-p-pump
it's all the better, for if he can fool the people with that kind of
g-g-gibberish, he can certainly f-f-fool them with the Balm of the
B-B-Blessed Islands! First time I was ever b-b-bamboozled in my life.
Feels queer. Our fortune's made, P-p-pepeeta!"

His triumph and excitement were so great that he did not notice the
silence and abstraction of his wife. His ardent mind invariably
excavated a channel into which it poured its thoughts, digging its bed
so deep as to flow on unconscious of everything else. Exulting in the
prospect of attaching to himself a companion so gifted, never doubting
for a moment that he could do so, reveling in the dreams of wealth to be
gathered from the increased sales of his patent medicine, he entered the
hotel and made straight for the bar-room, where he told his story with
the most unbounded delight.

Pepeeta retired at once to her room, but her mind was too much excited
and her heart too much agitated for slumber. She moved restlessly about
for a long time and then sat down at the open window and