Part 22 (1/2)
Here Juanna juht Leonard could see that her breast was heaving and her eyes shone with anger
”It is intolerable that I should be forced to listen to such falsehoods,” she said, ”and if you ever repeat theain I utterly repudiate this an, Mr Outrah with the 'farce,' and it was a farce Had I thought otherwise I should have taken the poison If there is any foundation for what the Father says, I have been deceived and entrapped”
”Pardon, senora,” replied the priest; ”but you should not speak so angrily The Senor Outra that Father Francisco is right, which I do not believe,”
said Leonard, with sarcas would bethan to yours? Believe me, had I wished to 'deceive and entrap' you, I could not have done so without involvingon both parties, and even such a humble individual as I am does not take a wife on the faith of a five minutes' acquaintance To be frank, I undertook your rescue for purposes far other than those of ht I ask what they were?” replied Juanna, in a tone of equal acerbity
”Certainly, Miss Rodd But first I ht-errant I aent reasons of my own I seek to win fortune Therefore, when the wo theht, ”came to me with a marvellous tale of a countless treasure of rubies, which she promised to reveal to me if I would undertake the little matter of your rescue, and when she even paid down a speci better to do and nowhere to go, being in short desperate, I consented
Indeed, I did , I being one contracting party, and Soa, acting on her own behalf and as your attorney, being the other”
”I have not the least idea to what you allude, nor did I ever give Soa any authority to sign docu?”
”Certainly,” Leonard answered; and rising he went to the baggage, whence he returned presently with a lantern and the prayer-book
Juanna placed the lantern beside her and opened the book The first thing that she saas a name on the fly-leaf, ”Jane Beach,” and beneath it this inscription, which evidently had been written by soreat hurry: ”To dearest Leonard from Jane 23 Jan”
”Turn over,” he said hastily; ”the document is on the other side”
She was not slow to note both the writing and the confusion which her perusal of it caused him Who was Jane Beach, she wondered, and why did she call Mr Outrae are the hearts of woainst her, whoever she ree over the craht, but when at length she had finished and looked up, there was a smile upon her lovely face which had more of scorn in it than was pleasant
”Come hither, Soa,” she said, ”and tell me what all this nonsense means about rubies and the People of the Mist”
”Shepherdess,” answered Soa, squatting down on the ground before her, ”it is not nonsense The language which I taught you when you were little is that of this people It is a true tale, though hitherto I have hid it from you and your father, Mavoom, lest Mavoom should seek to win the precious stones and coh them Listen, Shepherdess,” and she repeated the outlines of the story hich she had alreadythus:
”I told this tale to the White Man because I saw that he was greedy, after the fashi+on of his race, and my strait was desperate For this reason I bribed him with the red stone, and with the promise that I would lead him to the land of the People of the Mist, for had I not done so he would never have used his wit or put out his strength to rescue you from the Yellow Devil Therefore it was also that Iwell that I had no right to speak for you, and that by and by you could refuse to abide by it, though I am bound”
”Frank, at any rate,” said Leonard to himself ”What an attorney the old lady would have made!”
”Say, Soa,” asked Juanna, ”to succeed in the search for these stones is it necessary that I should act a part a your people?”
”I can see no other way,” she answered ”But what of that? You are free, and what I proo without his reward, it will save hi journey”
”Attorney!” ht to be Attorney-General”
”_Wow!_ The wicked old cheat!” put in Otter ”If I had h she is so clever with the big gun”
Juanna took no notice of these asides For the
”Really,” she said, ”this is a capital legal document But oh! Mr
Outra up such a roht-errant, and I was the Christian re, and when you heard of it you buckled on your ar me down to the nineteenth century with a run
”It is not knight-errantry, but a co a certain undefined part you believe that I shall be able to help you to secure treasure; therefore you agree to undertake the risk I anorant of what I am to do, for as yet nobody has explained it to me, but you need have no fear, I shall not repudiate, as Soa suggests with so much candour Certainly I shall try my best to help you in this business, if I can, for you have worked hard and endangered your life, Mr Outram, and I am sure that you have earned your money, or rather the prospect of it Really it is all very ahed merrily
As for Leonard, he sat before her,with shame What a fool he had been thus to expose hiirl, whose beauty was only equalled by her malice! He wished that his hand had withered before he wrote that accursed docu to do was to face it out