Water was brought in a basin, and the father consecrated it.
Then he bade Leonard stand by the girl and motioned to the crowd to fall back from them. All this while Leonard had been watching Juanna. She said no word, and her face was calm, but her eyes told him the terror and perplexity which tore her heart.
Once or twice she lifted her clenched right hand towards her lips, then dropped it without touching them. Leonard knew but too well what deed she meditated. He knew also the deadly nature of the drug she carried. If once it touched her tongue! The suspense was terrible. He could bear it no longer; even at the risk of discovery he must speak with her.
In obedience to the priest’s direction he sauntered to her side laughing. Then, still laughing, with his hand he separated the tresses of dark hair, as though to look at the beauty of her side face, and bent down as if to kiss her.
She stood pale and rigid, but once more her hand was lifted towards her mouth.
“Stop,” he whispered swiftly into her ear, speaking in English, “I have come to rescue you. Go through with this farce, it means nothing. Then, if I bid you, run for the drawbridge into the slave-camp.”
She heard, a light of intelligence shone in her eyes, and her hand fell again.
“Come, stop that, friend Pierre,” said Pereira suspiciously. “What are you whispering about?”
“I was telling the bride how beautiful I think her,” he answered carelessly.
Juanna turned and flashed on him a well-simulated glance of hate and scorn. Then the service began.