“No,” said Juanna, “they are gone, and we shall be lucky if we do not follow them into the home of that hideous snake. Good night.”
“Francisco,” said Leonard, as he rolled himself up in his blanket, “you had a narrow escape to-night. If I had missed my hold!”
“Yes, Outram, it was lucky for me that your arm is strong and your mind quick. Ah, I am a dreadful coward, and I can see the place now;” and he shuddered. “Always from a child I have believed that I shall die by a fall from some height, and to-night I thought that my hour had come. At first I did not understand, for I was watching the Senora’s face in the moonlight, and to me she looked like an angel. Then I saw, and my senses left me. It was as though hands were stretched up from the blackness to drag me down—yes, I saw the hands. But you saved me, Outram, though that will not help me, for I shall perish in some such way at last. So be it. It is best that I should die, who cannot conquer the evil of my heart.”
“Nonsense, my friend,” said Leonard; “don’t talk like that about dying. We can none of us afford to die just at present—that is, unless we are obliged to do so. Your nerves are upset, and no wonder! As for ‘the evil of your heart,’ I wish that most men had as little—the world would be better. Come, go to sleep; you will feel very differently to-morrow.”
Francisco smiled sadly and shook his head, then he knelt and began to say his prayers. The last thing that Leonard saw before his eyes closed in sleep was the rapt girlish face of the priest, round which the light of the taper fell like an aureole, as he knelt muttering prayer after prayer with his pale lips.
It was nine o’clock before Leonard awoke next morning—for they had not slept till nearly four—to find Francisco already up, dressed, and, as usual, praying. When Leonard was ready they adjourned to Juanna’s room, where breakfast was prepared for them. Here they found Otter, looking somewhat disturbed.
“Baas, Baas,” he said, “they have come and will not go away!”
“Who?” asked Leonard.
“The woman, Baas: she who was given to me to wife, and many other women—her servants—with her. There are more than twenty of them outside, Baas, and all of them very big. Now, what shall I do with her, Baas? I came here to serve you and to seek the red stones that you desire, and not a woman tall enough to be my grandmother.”
“I really don’t know and don’t care,” answered Leonard. “If you will be a god you must take the consequences. Only beware, Otter: lock up your tongue, for this woman will teach you to speak her language, and she may be a spy.”