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All things were done in order, though Juanna made no reply to the usual questions. With much sham courtesy the loathsome Pereira presided over the ceremony their hands were joined, the ring was set upon Juanna's finger, the blessing was pronounced, and it was finished. All this while Leonard stood like a man in a dream.
Very curious were the memories that passed through Juanna's mind as she stood by her husband's side in the little grass-roofed chapel of Blantyre, for was this not the third time that she had been married, and now only of her own free will?
"Who would know them apart now?" asked Soa triumphantly, then added, handing Leonard the great ruby which she had taken from Juanna's forehead, "Here, Deliverer, this belongs to you; do not lose the stone, for you have gone through much to win it."
"It is very unkind of you," she went on, "to speak crossly to me when I am so tired with talking to that savage and we may all be dead and buried in a few hours," and she looked as though she were going to cry. Leonard collapsed instantly, for Juanna's plaintive mood was the one that he could resist the least of any.
To a woman of Juanna's somewhat haughty nature this was very galling. Already she felt it to be so, and as time went on the chain of its remembrance irked her more and more, a circumstance which accounts for much of her subsequent conduct. Thinking such thoughts as these, Juanna strolled back towards the camp along a little pathway in the reeds, and suddenly came face to face with Leonard.
Soa took it, and after examination said: "Why, Deliverer, you have been borrowing medicine that will bring you bad luck if you keep it," and going to a small aperture in the wall of the cell, she threw the tiny packet out of it, and after it a second packet which Leonard recognised as having been taken from Juanna's hair. "There, now you cannot hurt yourself," she added in Portuguese.
Now Otter, naked except for his moocha, sprang on to the rock by Juanna's side, and the murmur of the soldiers of the Great People grew into a hoarse roar of astonishment and dismay. Wonder had turned to fear, though why this multitude of warriors should fear a lovely white girl and a black dwarf was not apparent.
Otter, who was utterly bewildered, not comprehending a word of what had been said, and being unable to fathom the meaning of these strange antics, pointed at the chief with his spear by way of calling Juanna's attention to the fact that he was still standing. But the great man interpreted the action otherwise; evidently he thought that the newly arrived god was invoking destruction on him.
At noon the party adjourned to the temple, escorted by a bevy of priests and soldiers, for in obedience to Juanna's commands the feast was to be celebrated in the daytime and not at night. As before, the vast amphitheatre was crowded with thousands of human beings, but there was a difference in the arrangements.
For a while the wind had dropped and the silence was deep, so deep was it that Leonard could hear the mew of a kitten which had crept from the verandah, and was rubbing itself against Juanna's feet. She heard it also, and, stooping, lifted the little creature and held it to her breast. "Let her go!" said a voice from the crowd. "She is a witch and will bring ill-luck upon us."
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