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Updated: May 31, 2025
"Now, Juanna," he said, "we are going to start. Grip fast with your right hand, and see that you do not leave go of the edge of the stone, or we shall both slip off it." "Oh! take me with you, Shepherdess, take me with you, and I will be wicked no more, but serve you as of old," shrilled the voice of Soa in so despairing a cry that the rocks rang.
An hour later they encamped upon the bank of the river, and it was while they were sitting round the fire at night that Juanna told Leonard of the horrors which she had undergone during her dreadful sojourn with the slave caravan.
Instantly they sprang to their feet and ran outside the house, headed by Juanna. There, borne on the shoulders of six travel-worn men, and followed by a crowd of natives, they saw a litter, upon which lay the figure of a man covered with blankets. "Oh! he is dead!" said Juanna, stopping suddenly, and pressing her hands to her heart. For a moment Leonard thought that she was right.
In less than a minute she was feasting her eyes upon such a collection of priceless jewels as had never before gladdened the sight of any white woman, even in her wildest dreams; indeed, till now Juanna had not thought it possible that stones so splendid could exist on the hither side of the walls of heaven.
Occasionally Juanna would call her companion's attention to some water-flower or to a great fish darting from the oars, and he would answer by a word or nod. His heart was wroth with the girl, as Otter would have said; he wondered why she had come with him because she was tired of the priest perhaps. He wished her away, and yet he would have been sorry enough had she gone.
It was not wonderful that this fierce and barbarous people sighed like reeds before the wind when her loveliness dawned upon them, made ethereal by the moon, or that thenceforth Leonard could never think of her quite as he thought of any other woman. Under such conditions most well-favoured women would have appeared beautiful; Juanna did more, she seemed divine.
"My word!" said Leonard to himself, "this king is setting himself up as my rival. I almost wish I had put things on a more satisfactory footing; but of course it is absurd. Poor Juanna!" As for Juanna herself, she started and blushed; here was a new trouble, but however disagreeable it might prove to be, now was no time to show displeasure.
At the sight of her the priests and soldiers fell upon their faces, and Leonard had sufficient presence of mind to follow their example, dragging Francisco down beside him. "What is this tumult?" she asked the guards in their own tongue. "I tell you what it is, Juanna," said Leonard, rubbing his head upon the ground and speaking in English.
When they had seen everything there was to be seen, they hurried back to the others to report their discovery, and just then the rain set in more heavily than before. "A house!" said Juanna; "then for goodness' sake let us get into it. We are all half dead with the cold and wet."
In the silence all that he uttered could be heard plainly, but his words came from far away, and the sound of them was still and small. This was what he said, as Juanna told it to them after the ceremony. "Hear me, ye Children of the Snake, ye ancient People of the Mist! Hearken to me, Nam, the priest of the Snake!
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