He laughed aloud.
It was very hot, and he was stifling with inaction.

What was Barker doing, and why had not Stacy telegraphed to him?
And what were those people in the courtyard doing?
Were they discussing news of further disaster and ruin?
Perhaps he was even now a beggar.

Well, his fortune might go with his faith.
But the crowd was simply looking at the roof of the hotel, and he now saw that a black smoke was drifting across the courtyard, and was conscious of a smell of soot and burning.

He stepped down from the veranda among the mingled guests and servants, and saw that the smoke was only pouring from a chimney.

He heard, too, that the chimney had been on fire, and that it was Mrs.Van Loo's bedroom chimney, and that when the startled servants had knocked at the locked door she had told them that she was only burning some old letters and newspapers, the refuse of her trunks.