The
street was filled with clamor, and the pavement was blocked with
struggling forms. Knives flashed, brawny-armed Arabs closed in deadly
combat, and cursed each other with all the rich repertory of Islam. Of
course, people tried to rush from the vestibule of the hotel to
ascertain what was causing the tumult. But the fighters filled the
doorway so that none could enter or leave the building, and, in the
midst of the alarm and confusion, the pair of Somali ponies attached to
the ramshackle vehicle were whipped into a fast gallop. Then the riot
subsided as quickly as it arose, and, were it not that Irene was gone,
no one appeared to be much the worse.
CHAPTER IX
A GALLOP IN THE DARK
Several minor rills of events combined to produce this tempestuous
torrent at the door of the Hotel Grande del Universe, and any level-
headed man acquainted with their meanderings might come to the just
conclusion that Irene had been kidnapped in mistake for Mrs. Haxton. He
might have deplored the blunder, but, leaving out of count any humane
consideration for the girl's feelings, he must have admired the stage-
craft displayed by her abductors.
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