At this juncture Leonard quietly drew his revolver, though at the time nobody noticed it except Francisco. Indeed by now Juanna was almost as angry as Soa herself.
“How dare you speak to me thus?” she said, stamping her foot, “you whom from a child I have thought good and have trusted. What do you say? That I must give him who saved me from death over to death, in order that I may buy back your love and protect myself. You evil woman, I tell you that first I will die as I would have died yonder in the slave camp,” and she ceased, for her indignation was too great to allow her to say more.
“So be it, Shepherdess,” said Soa solemnly, “I hear you. It was to be expected that you would prefer him whom you love to her who loves you. Yet, Shepherdess, was it not I after all who saved you yonder in the slave camp? Doubtless I dream, but it seems to me that when those men who are dead deserted you, running this way and that in their fear—and, Shepherdess, it is for this that I am glad they are dead, and lifted no hand to save them—I followed you alone. It seems to me that, having followed you far till I could walk no more for hunger and weariness, I used my wit and bribed a certain white man, of the sort who would sell their sisters and blaspheme their mothers for a reward, to attempt your rescue.
“I bribed him with a gem of great price—had there been ten of them, that gem would have bought them all—and with the gem I told him the secret of the treasure which is here. He took the bribe, and being brave and desperate, he drew you out of the clutches of the Yellow Devil, though in that matter also I had some part; and then you loved him. Ah! could I have foreseen it, Shepherdess, I had left you to die in the slave camp, for then you had died loving me who now hate me and cast me off for the sake of this white thief.”
Leonard could bear it no longer, and in the interests of their common safety he came to a desperate resolve. With an exclamation, he lifted the pistol and covered Soa. Both Francisco and Juanna saw the act and sprang to him, the latter exclaiming, “Oh! what are you going to do?”
“I propose to kill this woman before she kills us, that is all,” he answered coldly.
“No! no!” cried Juanna, “she has been faithful to me for many years. I cannot see her shot.”
“Let the butcher do his work,” mocked Soa; “it shall avail him little. Doubtless he is angry because I have spoken the truth about him,” and she folded her arms upon her breast, awaiting the bullet.
“What is to be done?” said Leonard desperately. “If I do not shoot her, she will certainly betray us.”
“Then let her betray,” said Francisco; “it is written that you shall do no murder.”