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Updated: May 31, 2025
Xavier also sprang to his feet, cursing with fury and drawing his sabre as he rose. "Follow me," said Leonard to Juanna and Otter. Then without more ado he took to his heels. A shout of laughter went up from the mob. "This is the brave man. This is the French fire-eater," they cried. "He strikes unawares and is afraid to fight." Nor did they stop at words.
For some days after the acrimonious conversation that has been reported, the relations between Leonard and Juanna were not a little strained, although the necessities of travel brought them into continual contact. Both felt that they had cause of complaint against the other, and both were at heart somewhat ashamed of the part which they had played.
Of course Juanna was able to give no satisfactory answer to the priest's questions, and after this the quarters of the Settlement men were changed, and for a few days the survivors slept in safety.
"He showed good judgment there," said Leonard. "Had it not been for Soa, Juanna would have been a slave-girl now, or dead." "That is so, Outram, but whether we showed good judgment in trusting our lives to her tender mercies is quite another matter. Say, friend, do you think it well to go on with this business?" "Oh, confound it all!" said Leonard with irritation, "how can we turn back now?
Juanna asked for the titles of the wives, whereon the undefeated Otter gave them all Kaffir names, not neglecting to describe their lineage, personal charms, and the number and sex of their children.
Here Otter and Juanna descended from the litters, and all the torches were extinguished, leaving them in darkness. Leonard felt his hand seized and was led along, he knew not where, for the misty gloom was intense. He could scarcely see the face even of the priest who conducted them, but from the sounds he gathered that all their party were being guided in a similar fashion.
"Going!" said that worthy; "the white girl, Juanna, is going to the stranger Pierre for one hundred and twenty ounces of gold. Going! Come, Xavier, don't lose her. If you do you will only be sorry once, and that will be always. Now, for the last time," and he lifted his glass in his hand and paused. Xavier made a step forward and opened his lips to speak.
Casting aside the rags of the Portuguese uniform in which he had disguised himself, Leonard put on some of these articles and reappeared in the camp dressed like an ordinary English colonist, roughly indeed, but becomingly. Meanwhile Juanna had also been making her toilet, with the help of Soa, who took this opportunity to tell her mistress the history of her meeting with Leonard Outram.
But Soa knew well enough that this was but the beginning of the struggle, and that, though it might be comparatively easy for Juanna and Otter to enter the city, and impose themselves upon its superstition-haunted people as the incarnations of their fabled gods, the maintenance of the imposture was a very different matter.
When Juanna had gazed upon this scene for some twenty seconds the sliding panel was closed, apparently by Soa, and Nam spoke: "You have seen, Shepherdess," he said, "that the Deliverer is bound, and you have seen also that before him is a hole in the floor of the prison.
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