An opportunity did not present itself until all the occupants of the factory had apparently retired, as usual, to sleep in the coolest place they could find during the heat which follows noon. Rideau slipped into the iron-roofed room where Dom Pedro kept his accounts. As it happened, however, Bonita was rather more wide-awake than usual, and shortly afterward she also entered the office, to find her guest glancing into a big folio with evident interest. He was in no way disconcerted, and smiled upon her affably.
"There was a difference in the weight of the last gums I sent down," he explained. "I would find the entry before I speak to Dom Pedro."
Bonita Castro was quick of wit.
"Then, as I help my father with the accounts, you will give me the details," she said.
Rideau's inventive genius was apparently unequal to the task, for he bowed ceremoniously.
"It is impossible to consider any question of business in the brightness of the señorita's presence."
Miss Castro laughed.
"You have my full permission. Now, as regards this gum?"
Rideau seated himself languidly.
"I am a man of affairs, but I have also sensibility, and shall I trouble the señorita about a bag of gum? To touch those dusty books is a desecration to her fingers."