s not gentle; when they hate they find a means to be revenged," and
she ceased, gasping with rage.

Indeed, at that moment Soa would have made no bad model for a statue of
one of the furies of Greek mythology.

Then Juanna attempted to interfere, but Leonard waved her back.

"So," he said, "as I thought, you are at the bottom of all this
business. Perhaps you will not mind telling us what has become of your
friends, the Settlement men, or, if you feel a delicacy on that point,
how it is that you have escaped while they have vanished."

"I know nothing of the Settlement men," answered the Fury, "except that
they have been taken and sacrificed as was their meed, and as yet I have
lifted no hand and said no word against you, though a breath from me
would have swept you all to doom. Hitherto I have been spared for the
same reason that you and Bald-pate yonder have been spared--because we
are the body-servants of the false gods, and are reserved to perish with
them when the lie is discovered; or perhaps to live awhile, set in cages
in the market-place, to be mocked by the passers-by and to serve as a
warning to any whose monkey hearts should dare to plot sacrilege against
the divinity of Aca and Jal.

"Now, Shepherdess, take your choice. As you know well, I have loved
you from a babe and I love you yet, though you have scorned me for this
man's sake. Take your choice, I say; cling to me and trust me, giving
the Deliverer to the priests, and I will save you. Cling to him, and
I will bring shame and death upon you all, for my love shall turn to
hate."

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