Part 25 (1/2)

”Mr Outra of the slave ca that I ever heard of, and I only wish that I had been there to help in it”

”Don't speak of it!” said Leonard ”Perhaps you have heard also that I did it for a consideration”

”Yes, they told me that too, and small blame to you If only that old fool Soa had let me into the secret of those rubies, I would have had a try for theone Well, I hope that you et theht h my own fault as usual If you ever take a drop, Outraive it up; but you don't look as if you did; you look as I used to, before I learnt to tackle a bottle of ru

”Now listen, comrade, I am in a hole, not about myself, for that must have come sooner or later, and it does not much matter when the world is rid of a useless fellow like irl here What is to becoot a cent; those cursed slavers have cleared me out, and she has no friend How should she have, when I have been thirty years away fro I can do I ah on you, and as you deal with her, so may Heaven deal with you! I understand that there was soe between you down yonder I don't kno you take that, either of you, or how far the oes any way at all, I trust to your honour, as an English gentleman, to repeat that ceremony the first time you come to a civilised country If you do not care for each other, however, then Juanna s She can look after herself, and I suppose that her face will help her to a husband soh she hasn't a pound, she is the best girl that ever stepped, and of as good blood as you can be There is no older family than the Rodds in Lincolnshi+re, and she is the last of theh she was a Portugee

”And now, do you accept the trust?”

”I would gladly,” answered Leonard, ”but how can I? I propose to go after these rubies Would it not be better that Father Francisco here should take your daughter to the coast? I have a little money which is at her disposal”

”No,” answered the dying y, ”I will only trust her to you

If you want to search for these rubies, and you would be a fool not to, she must accompany you--that is all I know that you will look after her, and if the worst comes to the worst, she has a medicine to protect herself with, the same that she so nearly used in the slave caht for aman watched his face anxiously

”It is a heavy responsibility,” he said, ”and the circumstances make it an aard one But I accept it I will take care of her as though she were hter”

”Thank you for that,” answered Rodd ”I believe you, and as to the relationshi+p, you will settle that for yourselves And now good-bye I like you I wish that we had known one another before I got into trouble at home, became a Zambesi trader, and--a drunkard”

Leonard took the hand which Mr Rodd lifted with a visible effort, and when he released it, it fell heavily, like the hand of a dead lanced at Juanna's face, but couldof it, for it was as the face of a sphinx

There the girl sat, her back resting against the wall, her dying father's head pillowed upon her knee, ht before her with eyes wide open and curved lips set apart, as though she were about to speak and suddenly had been stricken to silence So still was she that Leonard could scarcely note any movement of her breast Even her eyelids had ceased to quiver, and the very pallor of her face seee He wondered what she was thinking of; but even had she been willing to bare her thoughts to hiible Her ainst the other within it, the sense of loss and the sense of sha his faults, she loved dearly, who indeed had been her companion, her teacher, her play before her eyes, and with his last breath he consigned her to the care of the man whom she loved, and from whom, as she believed, she was for ever separated Would there, then, be no end to the obligations under which she laboured at the hands of this stranger, who had suddenly taken possession of her life? And what fate was on her that she should thus be forced into false positions, whence there was no escape?

Did she wish to escape even? Juanna knew not; but as she sat there with a sphinx-like face, trouble and doubt, and , took so firth her rip of present realities, and sought refuge in dreale No wonder, then, that Leonard failed to guess her thoughts, as she watched hio fro, and on the following afternoon they buried hi the service Three more days passed before Leonard had any conversation with Juanna, who moved about the place, pale, self-contained, and silent Nor would he have spoken to her then had she not taken the initiative

”Mr Outram,” she said, ”when do you propose to start upon this journey?”

”Really, I do not know I am not sure that I shall start at all It depends upon you You see I am responsible for you now, and I can scarcely reconcile it with oose chase”

”Please do not talk like that,” she answered ”If it will simplify matters I o”

”You cannot unless I go too,” he answered s there,” Juanna replied defiantly ”I can, and what is o without ood or evil we are yoked together in this matter, Mr Outram, so it is useless for us to try to pull different ways Before he died, my dear father told you his views plainly, and even if there were no other considerations involved, such as that of the agreement--for, whatever you may think to the contrary, woman have soard his wishes Besides, what else are we to do? We are both adventurers now, and both penniless, or pretty nearly so Perhaps if we succeed in finding this treasure, and it is sufficiently large, you will be generous and give me a share of it, say five per cent, on which to support inning to show teain,” said Leonard to himself ”I will ask Francisco what he thinks of it”

Of late, things had gone a little better between Leonard and the priest

Not that the former had as yet any complete confidence in the latter