THE GREAT TABOO

by

GRANT ALLEN

PREFACE

I desire to express my profound indebtedness, for the centralmythological idea embodied in this tale, to Mr. J. G. Frazer's admirableand epoch-making work, "The Golden Bough, " whose main contention I haveendeavored incidentally to popularize in my present story. I wish also toexpress my obligations in other ways to Mr. Andrew Lang's "Myth, Ritual, and Religion, " Mr. H. O. Forbes's "Naturalist's Wanderings, " and Mr. Julian Thomas's "Cannibals and Convicts. " If I have omitted to mentionany other author to whom I may have owed incidental hints, it will besome consolation to me to reflect that I shall at least have afforded anopportunity for legitimate sport to the amateurs of the new and popularBritish pastime of badger-baiting or plagiary-hunting. It may also savecritics some moments' search if I say at once that, after carefulconsideration, I have been unable to discover any moral whatsoever inthis humble narrative. I venture to believe that in so enlightened an agethe majority of my readers will never miss it. 

G. A. 

THE NOOK, DORKING, October, 1890. 

CHAPTER I. 

IN MID PACIFIC. 

"Man overboard!"

It rang in Felix Thurstan's ears like the sound of a bell. He gazed abouthim in dismay, wondering what had happened. 

The first intimation he received of the accident was that sudden sharpcry from the bo'sun's mate. Almost before he had fully taken it in, inall its meaning, another voice, farther aft, took up the cry once more inan altered form: "A lady! a lady! Somebody overboard! Great heavens, itis _her_! It's Miss Ellis! Miss Ellis!"

Next instant Felix found himself, he knew not how, struggling in a wildgrapple with the dark, black water. A woman was clinging to him--clingingfor dear life. But he couldn't have told you himself that minute how itall took place. He was too stunned and dazzled. 

He looked around him on the seething sea in a sudden awakening, as itwere, to life and consciousness. All about, the great water stretcheddark and tumultuous. White breakers surged over him. Far ahead thesteamer's lights gleamed red and green in long lines upon the ocean. Atfirst they ran fast; then they slackened somewhat. She was surely slowingnow; they must be reversing engines and trying to stop her. They wouldput out a boat. But what hope, what chance of rescue by night, in such awild waste of waves as that? And Muriel Ellis was clinging to him fordear life all the while, with the despairing clutch of a half-drownedwoman!

The people on the Australasian, for their part, knew better what hadoccurred. There was bustle and confusion enough on deck and on thecaptain's bridge, to be sure: "Man overboard!"--three sharp rings at theengine bell:--"Stop her short!--reverse engines!--lower the gig!--looksharp, there, all of you!" Passengers hurried up breathless at the firstalarm to know what was the matter. Sailors loosened and lowered the boatfrom the davits with extraordinary quickness. Officers stood by, givingorders in monosyllables with practised calm. All was hurry and turmoil, yet with a marvellous sense of order and prompt obedience as well. But, at any rate, the people on deck hadn't the swift swirl of the boisterouswater, the hampering wet clothes, the pervading consciousness of personaldanger, to make their brains reel, like Felix Thurstan's. They could askone another with comparative composure what had happened on board; theycould listen without terror to the story of the accident. 

It was the thirteenth day out from Sydney, and the Australasian wasrapidly nearing the equator. Toward evening the wind had freshened, andthe sea was running high against her weather side. But it was a finestarlit night, though the moon had not yet risen; and as the brieftropical twilight faded away by quick degrees in the west, the fringe ofcocoanut palms on the reef that bounded the little island of Bouparishowed out for a minute or two in dark relief, some miles to leeward, against the pale pink horizon. In spite of the heavy sea, many passengerslingered late on deck that night to see the last of that coral-girtshore, which was to be their final glimpse of land till they reachedHonolulu, _en route_ for San Francisco. 

Bit by bit, however, the cocoanut palms, silhouetted with their gracefulwaving arms for a few brief minutes in black against the glowingbackground, merged slowly into the sky or sank below the horizon. Allgrew dark. One by one, as the trees disappeared, the passengers droppedoff for whist in the saloon, or retired to the uneasy solitude of theirown state-rooms. At last only two or three men were left smoking andchatting near the top of the companion ladder; while at the stern of theship Muriel Ellis looked over toward the retreating island, and talkedwith a certain timid maidenly frankness to Felix Thurstan. 

There's nowhere on earth for getting really to know people in a veryshort time like the deck of a great Atlantic or Pacific liner. You'rethrown together so much, and all day long, that you see more of yourfellow-passengers' inner life and nature in a few brief weeks than youwould ever be likely to see in a long twelvemonth of ordinary town orcountry acquaintanceship. And Muriel Ellis had seen a great deal in thosethirteen days of Felix Thurstan; enough to make sure in her own heartthat she really liked him--well--so much that she looked up with a prettyblush of self-consciousness every time he approached and lifted his hatto her. Muriel was an English rector's daughter, from a country villagein Somersetshire; and she was now on her way back from a long year'svisit, to recruit her health, to an aunt in Paramatta. She was travellingunder the escort of an amiable old chaperon whom the aunt in question hadpicked up for her before leaving Sydney; but, as the amiable oldchaperon, being but an indifferent sailor, spent most of her time in herown berth, closely attended by the obliging stewardess, Muriel had foundher chaperonage interfere very little with opportunities of talk withthat nice Mr. Thurstan. And now, as the last glow of sunset died out inthe western sky, and the last palm-tree faded away against the coldergreen darkness of the tropical night, Muriel was leaning over thebulwarks in confidential mood, and watching the big waves advance orrecede, and talking the sort of talk that such an hour seems to favorwith the handsome young civil servant who stood on guard, as it were, beside her. For Felix Thurstan held a government appointment at Levuka, in Fiji, and was now on his way home, on leave of absence after sixyears' service in that new-made colony. 

"How delightful it would be to live on an island like that!" Murielmurmured, half to herself, as she gazed out wistfully in the direction ofthe disappearing coral reef. "With those beautiful palms waving alwaysover one's head, and that delicious evening air blowing cool throughtheir branches! It looks such a Paradise!"

Felix smiled and glanced down at her, as he steadied himself with onehand against the bulwark, while the ship rolled over into the trough ofthe sea heavily. "Well, I don't know about that, Miss Ellis, " he answeredwith a doubtful air, eying her close as he spoke with eyes of evidentadmiration. "One might be happy anywhere, of course--in suitable society;but if you'd lived as long among cocoanuts in Fiji as I have, I dare saythe poetry of these calm palm-grove islands would be a little less realto you. Remember, though they look so beautiful and dreamy against thesky like that, at sunset especially (that was a heavy one, that time;I'm really afraid we must go down to the cabin soon; she'll be shippingseas before long if we stop on deck much later--and yet, it's sodelightful stopping up here till the dusk comes on, isn't it?)--well, remember, I was saying, though they look so beautiful and dreamy andpoetical--'Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea, ' andall that sort of thing--these islands are inhabited by the fiercest andmost bloodthirsty cannibals known to travellers. "

"Cannibals!" Muriel repeated, looking up at him in surprise. "You don'tmean to say that islands like these, standing right in the very track ofEuropean steamers, are still heathen and cannibal?"

"Oh, dear, yes, " Felix replied, holding his hand out as he spoke to catchhis companion's arm gently, and steady her against the wave that was justgoing to strike the stern: "Excuse me; just so; the sea's rising fast, isn't it?--Oh, dear, yes; of course they are; they're all heathen andcannibals. You couldn't imagine to yourself the horrible bloodthirstyrites that may this very minute be taking place upon that idyllic-lookingisland, under the soft waving branches of those whispering palm-trees. Why, I knew a man in the Marquesas myself--a hideous old native, as uglyas you can fancy him--who was supposed to be a god, an incarnate god, andwas worshipped accordingly with profound devotion by all the otherislanders. You can't picture to yourself how awful their worship was. Idaren't even repeat it to you; it was too, too horrible. He lived in ahut by himself among the deepest forest, and human victims used to bebrought--well, there, it's too loathsome! Why, see; there's a great lighton the island now; a big bonfire or something; don't you make it out? Youcan tell it by the red glare in the sky overhead. " He paused a moment;then he added more slowly, "I shouldn't be surprised if at this verymoment, while we're standing here in such perfect security on the deck ofa Christian English vessel, some unspeakable and unthinkable heathen orgymayn't be going on over there beside that sacrificial fire; and if somepoor trembling native girl isn't being led just now, with blows andcurses and awful savage ceremonies, her hands bound behind her back--Oh, look out, Miss Ellis!"

He was only just in time to utter the warning words. He was only just intime to put one hand on each side of her slender waist, and hold hertight so, when the big wave which he saw coming struck full tilt againstthe vessel's flank, and broke in one white drenching sheet of foamagainst her stern and quarter-deck. 

The suddenness of the assault took Felix's breath away. For the first fewseconds he was only aware that a heavy sea had been shipped, and had wethim through and through with its unexpected deluge. A moment later, hewas dimly conscious that his companion had slipped from his grasp, andwas nowhere visible. The violence of the shock, and the slimy nature ofthe sea water, had made him relax his hold without knowing it, in thetumult of the moment, and had at the same time caused Muriel to glideimperceptibly through his fingers, as he had often known an ill-caughtcricket-ball do in his school-days. Then he saw he was on his hands andknees on the deck. The wave had knocked him down, and dashed him againstthe bulwark on the leeward side. As he picked himself up, wet, bruised, and shaken, he looked about for Muriel. A terrible dread seized upon hissoul at once. Impossible! Impossible! she couldn't have been washedoverboard!

And even as he gazed about, and held his bruised elbow in his hand, andwondered to himself what it could all mean, that sudden loud cry arosebeside him from the quarter-deck, "Man overboard! Man overboard!"followed a moment later by the answering cry, from the men who weresmoking under the lee of the companion, "A lady! a lady! It's Miss Ellis!Miss Ellis!"

He didn't take it all in. He didn't reflect. He didn't even know he wasactually doing it. But he did it, all the same, with the simple, straightforward, instinctive sense of duty which makes civilized man actaright, all unconsciously, in any moment of supreme danger anddifficulty. Leaping on to the taffrail without one instant's delay, andsteadying himself for an indivisible fraction of time with his hand onthe rope ladder, he peered out into the darkness with keen eyes for aglimpse of Muriel Ellis's head above the fierce black water; and espyingit for one second, as she came up on a white crest, he plunged in beforethe vessel had time to roll back to windward, and struck boldly out inthe direction where he saw that helpless object dashed about like a corkon the surface of the ocean. 

Only those who have known such accidents at sea can possibly picture tothemselves the instantaneous haste with which all that followed tookplace upon that bustling quarter-deck. Almost at the first cry of "Manoverboard!" the captain's bell rang sharp and quick, as if by magic, withthree peremptory little calls in the engine-room below. The Australasianwas going at full speed, but in a marvellously short time, as it seemedto all on board, the great ship had slowed down to a perfect standstill, and then had reversed her engines, so that she lay, just nose to thewind, awaiting further orders. In the meantime, almost as soon as thewords were out of the bo'sun's lips, a sailor amidships had rushed to thesafety belts hung up by the companion ladder, and had flung half a dozenof them, one after another, with hasty but well-aimed throws, far, farastern, in the direction where Felix had disappeared into the blackwater. The belts were painted white, and they showed for a few seconds, as they fell, like bright specks on the surface of the darkling sea; thenthey sunk slowly behind as the big ship, still not quite stopped, ploughed her way ahead with gigantic force into the great abyss ofdarkness in front of her. 

It seemed but a minute, too, to the watchers on board, before a party ofsailors, summoned by the whistle with that marvellous readiness to meetany emergency which long experience of sudden danger has renderedhabitual among seafaring men, had lowered the boat, and taken their seatson the thwarts, and seized their oars, and were getting under way ontheir hopeless quest of search, through the dim black night, for thosetwo belated souls alone in the midst of the angry Pacific. 

It seemed but a minute or two, I say, to the watchers on board; but oh, what an eternity of time to Felix Thurstan, struggling there with hislive burden in the seething water!

He had dashed into the ocean, which was dark, but warm with tropicalheat, and had succeeded, in spite of the heavy seas then running, inreaching Muriel, who clung to him now with all the fierce clinging ofdespair, and impeded his movement through that swirling water. More thanthat, he saw the white life-belts that the sailors flung toward him; theywere well and aptly flung, in the inspiration of the moment, to allow forthe sea itself carrying them on the crest of its waves toward the twodrowning creatures. Felix saw them distinctly, and making a great lungeas they passed, in spite of Muriel's struggles, which sadly hampered hismovements, he managed to clutch at no less than three before the greatbillow, rolling on, carried them off on its top forever away from him. Two of these he slipped hastily over Muriel's shoulders; the other heput, as best he might, round his own waist; and then, for the first time, still clinging close to his companion's arm, and buffeted about wildly bythat running sea, he was able to look about him in alarm for a moment, and realize more or less what had actually happened. 

By this time the Australasian was a quarter of a mile away in front ofthem, and her lights were beginning to become stationary as she slowlyslowed and reversed engines. Then, from the summit of a great wave, Felixwas dimly aware of a boat being lowered--for he saw a separate lightgleaming across the sea--a search was being made in the black night, alas, how hopelessly! The light hovered about for many, many minutes, revealed to him now here, now there, searching in vain to find him, aswave after wave raised him time and again on its irresistible summit. Themen in the boat were doing their best, no doubt; but what chance offinding any one on a dark night like that, in an angry sea, and with noclue to guide them toward the two struggling castaways? Current and windhad things all their own way. As a matter of fact, the light never camenear the castaways at all; and after half an hour's ineffectual search, which seemed to Felix a whole long lifetime, it returned slowly towardthe steamer from which it came--and left those two alone on the darkPacific. 

"There wasn't a chance of picking 'em up, " the captain said, withphilosophic calm, as the men clambered on board again, and theAustralasian got under way once more for the port of Honolulu. "I knewthere wasn't a chance; but in common humanity one was bound to make someshow of trying to save 'em. He was a brave fellow to go after her, thoughit was no good of course. He couldn't even find her, at night, and withsuch a sea as that running. "

And even as he spoke, Felix Thurstan, rising once more on the crest of amuch smaller billow--for somehow the waves were getting incrediblysmaller as he drifted on to leeward--felt his heart sink within him as heobserved to his dismay that the Australasian must be steaming ahead oncemore, by the movement of her lights, and that they two were indeedabandoned to their fate on the open surface of that vast and tracklessocean. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE TEMPLE OF THE DEITY. 

While these things were happening on the sea close by, a very differentscene indeed was being enacted meanwhile, beneath those waving palms, onthe island of Boupari. It was strange, to be sure, as Felix Thurstan hadsaid, that such unspeakable heathen orgies should be taking place withinsight of a passing Christian English steamer. But if only he had known orreflected to what sort of land he was trying now to struggle ashore withMuriel, he might well have doubted whether it were not better to let herperish where she was, in the pure clear ocean, rather than to submit anEnglish girl to the possibility of undergoing such horrible heathen ritesand ceremonies. 

For on the island of Boupari it was high feast with the worshippers oftheir god that night. The sun had turned on the Tropic of Capricorn atnoon, and was making his way northward, toward the equator once more;and his votaries, as was their wont, had all come forth to do him honorin due season, and to pay their respects, in the inmost and sacredestgrove on the island, to his incarnate representative, the living spiritof trees and fruits and vegetation, the very high god, the divineTu-Kila-Kila!

Early in the evening, as soon as the sun's rim had disappeared beneaththe ocean, a strange noise boomed forth from the central shrine ofBoupari. Those who heard it clapped their hands to their ears and ranhastily forward. It was a noise like distant rumbling thunder, or thewhir of some great English mill or factory; and at its sound every womanon the island threw herself on the ground prostrate, with her face in thedust, and waited there reverently till the audible voice of the god hadonce more subsided. For no woman knew how that sound was produced. Onlythe grown men, initiated into the mysteries of the shrine when they cameof age at the tattooing ceremony, were aware that the strange, buzzing, whirring noise was nothing more or less than the cry of the bull-roarer. 

A bull-roarer, as many English schoolboys know, is merely a piece ofoblong wood, pointed at either end, and fastened by a leather thong atone corner. But when whirled round the head by practised priestly hands, it produces a low rumbling noise like the wheels of a distant carriage, growing gradually louder and clearer, from moment to moment, till at lastit waxes itself into a frightful din, or bursts into perfect peals ofimitation thunder. Then it decreases again once more, as gradually as itrose, becoming fainter and ever fainter, like thunder as it recedes, tillthe horrible bellowing, as of supernatural bulls, dies away in the end, by slow degrees, into low and soft and imperceptible murmurs. 

But when the savage hears the distant humming of the bull-roarer, atwhatever distance, he knows that the mysteries of his god are in fullswing, and he hurries forward in haste, leaving his work or his pleasure, and running, naked as he stands, to take his share in the worship, lestthe anger of heaven should burst forth in devouring flames to consumehim. But the women, knowing themselves unworthy to face the dreadpresence of the high god in his wrath, rush wildly from the spot, and, flinging themselves down at full length, with their mouths to the dust, wait patiently till the voice of their deity is no longer audible. 

And as the bull-roarer on Boupari rang out with wild echoes from thecoral caverns in the central grove that evening, Tu-Kila-Kila, their god, rose slowly from his place, and stood out from his hut, a deity revealed, before his reverential worshippers. 

As he rose, a hushed whisper ran wave-like through the dense throng ofdusky forms that bent low, like corn beneath the wind, before him, "Tu-Kila-Kila rises! He rises to speak! Hush! for the voice of the mightyman-god!"

The god, looking around him superciliously with a cynical air ofcontempt, stood forward with a firm and elastic step before his silentworshippers. He was a stalwart savage, in the very prime of life, tall, lithe, and active. His figure was that of a man well used to command;but his face, though handsome, was visibly marked by every external signof cruelty, lust, and extreme bloodthirstiness. One might have said, merely to look at him, he was a being debased by all forms of brutal andhateful self-indulgence. A baleful light burned in his keen gray eyes. His lips were thick, full, purple, and wistful. 

"My people may look upon me, " he said, in a strangely affablevoice, standing forward and smiling with a curious half-cruel, half-compassionate smile upon his awe-struck followers. "On every dayof the sun's course but this, none save the ministers dedicated to theservice of Tu-Kila-Kila dare gaze unhurt upon his sacred person. Ifany other did, the light from his holy eyes would wither them up, andthe glow of his glorious countenance would scorch them to ashes. " Heraised his two hands, palm outward, in front of him. "So all the yearround, " he went on, "Tu-Kila-Kila, who loves his people, and sendsthem the earlier and the later rain in the wet season, and makes theiryams and their taro grow, and causes his sun to shine upon themfreely--all the year round Tu-Kila-Kila, your god, sits shut up in hisown house among the skeletons of those whom he has killed and eaten, orwalks in his walled paddock, where his bread-fruit ripens and hisplantains spring--himself, and the ministers that his tribesmen havegiven him. "

At the sound of their mystic deity's voice the savages, bending lowerstill till their foreheads touched the ground, repeated in chorus, to theclapping of hands, like some solemn litany: "Tu-Kila-Kila speaks true. Our lord is merciful. He sends down his showers upon our crops andfields. He causes his sun to shine brightly over us. He makes our pigsand our slaves bring forth their increase. Tu-Kila-Kila is good. Hispeople praise him. "

The god took another step forward, the divine mantle of red feathersglowing in the sunset on his dusky shoulders, and smiled once more thathateful gracious smile of his. He was standing near the open door of hiswattled hut, overshadowed by the huge spreading arms of a giganticbanyan-tree. Through the open door of the hut it was possible to catchjust a passing glimpse of an awful sight within. On the beams of thehouse, and on the boughs of the trees behind it, human skeletons, halfcovered with dry flesh, hung in ghastly array, their skulls turneddownward. They were the skeletons of the victims Tu-Kila-Kila, theirprince, had slain and eaten; they were the trophies of the cannibalman-god's hateful prowess. 

Tu-Kila-Kila raised his right hand erect and spoke again. "I am a greatgod, " he said, slowly. "I am very powerful. I make the sun to shine, andthe yams to grow. I am the spirit of plants. Without me there would benothing for you all to eat or drink in Boupari. If I were to grow old anddie, the sun would fade away in the heavens overhead; the bread-fruittrees would wither and cease to bear on earth; all fruits would come toan end and die at once; all rivers would stop forthwith from running. "

His worshippers bowed down in acquiescence with awestruck faces. "It istrue, " they answered, in the same slow sing-song of assent as before. "Tu-Kila-Kila is the greatest of gods. We owe to him everything. We hangupon his favor. "

Tu-Kila-Kila started back, laughed, and showed his pearly white teeth. They were beautiful and regular, like the teeth of a tiger, a strongyoung tiger. "But I need more sacrifices than all the other gods, " hewent on, melodiously, like one who plays with consummate skill upon somedifficult instrument. "I am greedy; I am thirsty; I am a hungry god. Youmust not stint me. I claim more human victims than all the other godsbeside. If you want your crops to grow, and your rivers to run, thefields to yield you game, and the sea fish--this is what I ask: give mevictims, victims! That is our compact. Tu-Kila-Kila calls you. "

The men bowed down once more and repeated humbly, "You shall have victimsas you will, great god; only give us yam and taro and bread-fruit, andcause not your bright light, the sun, to grow dark in heaven over us. "

"Cut yourselves, " Tu-Kila-Kila cried, in a peremptory voice, clapping hishands thrice. "I am thirsting for blood. I want your free-will offering. "

As he spoke, every man, as by a set ritual, took from a little skinwallet at his side a sharp flake of coral-stone, and, drawing itdeliberately across his breast in a deep red gash, caused the blood toflow out freely over his chest and long grass waistband. Then, havingdone so, they never strove for a moment to stanch the wound, but letthe red drops fall as they would on to the dust at their feet, withoutseeming even to be conscious at all of the fact that they were flowing. 

Tu-Kila-Kila smiled once more, a ghastly self-satisfied smile ofunquestioned power. "It is well, " he went on. "My people love me. Theyknow my strength, how I can wither them up. They give me their blood todrink freely. So I will be merciful to them. I will make my sun shine andmy rain drop from heaven. And instead of taking _all_, I will choose onevictim. " He paused, and glanced along their line significantly. 

"Choose, Tu-Kila-Kila, " the men answered, without a moment's hesitation. "We are all your meat. Choose which one you will take of us. "

Tu-Kila-Kila walked with a leisurely tread down the lines and surveyedthe men critically. They were all drawn up in rows, one behind the other, according to tribes and families; and the god walked along each row, examining them with a curious and interested eye, as a farmer examinessheep fit for the market. Now and then, he felt a leg or an arm with hisfinger and thumb, and hesitated a second. It was an important matter, this choosing a victim. As he passed, a close observer might have notedthat each man trembled visibly while the god's eye was upon him, andlooked after him askance with a terrified sidelong gaze as he passed onto his neighbor. But not one savage gave any overt sign or token of histerror or his reluctance. On the contrary, as Tu-Kila-Kila passed alongthe line with lazy, cruel deliberateness, the men kept chanting aloudwithout one tremor in their voices, "We are all your meat. Choose whichone you will take of us. "

On a sudden, Tu-Kila-Kila turned sharply round, and, darting a rapidglance toward a row he had already passed several minutes before, heexclaimed, with an air of unexpected inspiration, "Tu-Kila-Kila haschosen. He takes Maloa. "

The man upon whose shoulder the god laid his heavy hand as he spoke stoodforth from the crowd without a moment's hesitation. If anger or fear wasin his heart at all, it could not be detected in his voice or hisfeatures. He bowed his head with seeming satisfaction, and answeredhumbly, "What Tu-Kila-Kila says must need be done. This is a great honor. He is a mighty god. We poor men must obey him. We are proud to be takenup and made one with divinity. "

Tu-Kila-Kila raised in his hand a large stone axe of some polished greenmaterial, closely resembling jade, which lay on a block by the door, andtried its edge with his finger, in an abstracted manner. "Bind him!" hesaid, quietly, turning round to his votaries. And the men, each glad tohave escaped his own fate, bound their comrade willingly with green ropesof plantain fibre. 

"Crown him with flowers!" Tu-Kila-Kila said; and a female attendant, absolved from the terror of the bull-roarer by the god's command, broughtforward a great garland of crimson hibiscus, which she flung around thevictim's neck and shoulders. 

"Lay his head on the sacred stone block of our fathers, " Tu-Kila-Kilawent on, in an easy tone of command, waving his hand gracefully. And themen, moving forward, laid their comrade, face downward, on a huge flatblock of polished greenstone, which lay like an altar in front of thehut with the mouldering skeletons. 

"It is well, " Tu-Kila-Kila murmured once more, half aloud. "You havegiven me the free-will offering. Now for the trespass! Where is thewoman who dared to approach too near the temple-home of the divineTu-Kila-Kila? Bring the criminal forward!"

The men divided, and made a lane down their middle. Then one of them, aminister of the man-god's shrine, led up by the hand, all trembling andshrinking with supernatural terror in every muscle, a well-formed younggirl of eighteen or twenty. Her naked bronze limbs were shapely andlissome; but her eyes were swollen and red with tears, and her facestrongly distorted with awe for the man-god. When she stood at lastbefore Tu-Kila-Kila's dreaded face, she flung herself on the ground in anagony of fear. 

"Oh, mercy, great God!" she cried, in a feeble voice. "I have sinned, Ihave sinned. Mercy, mercy!"

Tu-Kila-Kila smiled as before, a smile of imperial pride. No ray of pitygleamed from those steel-gray eyes. "Does Tu-Kila-Kila show mercy?" heasked, in a mocking voice. "Does he pardon his suppliants? Does heforgive trespasses? Is he not a god, and must not his wrath be appeased?She, being a woman, and not a wife sealed to Tu-Kila-Kila, has dared tolook from afar upon his sacred home. She has spied the mysteries. Therefore she must die. My people, bind her. "

In a second, without more ado, while the poor trembling girl writhed andgroaned in her agony before their eyes, that mob of wild savages, letloose to torture and slay, fell upon her with hideous shouts, and boundher, as they had bound their comrade before, with coarse native ropes oftwisted plantain fibre. 

"Lay her head on the stone, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, grimly. And his votariesobeyed him. 

"Now light the sacred fire to make our feast, before I slay the victims, "the god said, in a gloating voice, running his finger again along theedge of his huge hatchet. 

As he spoke, two men, holding in their hands hollow bamboos with coals offire concealed within, which they kept aglow meanwhile by waving them upand down rapidly in the air, laid these primitive matches to the base ofa great pyramidal pile of wood and palm-leaves, ready prepared beforehandin the yard of the temple. In a second, the dry fuel, catching the sparksinstantly, blazed up to heaven with a wild outburst of flame. Great redtongues of fire licked up the mouldering mass of leaves and twigs, andcaught at once at the trunks of palm and li wood within. A hugeconflagration reddened the sky at once like lightning. The effect wasmagical. The glow transfigured the whole island for miles. It was, infact, the blaze that Felix Thurstan had noted and remarked upon as hestood that evening on the silent deck of the Australasian. 

Tu-Kila-Kila gazed at it with horrid childish glee. "A fine fire!" hesaid, gayly. "A fire worthy of a god. It will serve me well. Tu-Kila-Kilawill have a good oven to roast his meal in. "

Then he turned toward the sea, and held up his hand once more forsilence. As he did so, an answering light upon its surface attracted hiseye for a moment's space. It was a bright red light, mixed with white andgreen ones; in point of fact, the Australasian was passing. Tu-Kila-Kilapointed toward it solemnly with his plump, brown fore-finger. "See, " hesaid, drawing himself up and looking preternaturally wise; "your god isgreat. I am sending some of this fire across the sea to where my sun hasset, to aid and reinforce it. That is to keep up the fire of the sun, lest ever at any time it should fade and fail you. While Tu-Kila-Kilalives the sun will burn bright. If Tu-Kila-Kila were to die it would benight forever. "

His votaries, following their god's fore-finger as it pointed, all turnedto look in the direction he indicated with blank surprise andastonishment. Such a sight had never met their eyes before, for theAustralasian was the very first steamer to take the eastward route, through the dangerous and tortuous Boupari Channel. So their awe andsurprise at the unwonted sight knew no bounds. Fire on the ocean!Miraculous light on the waves! Their god must, indeed, be a mighty deityif he could send flames like that careering over the sea! Surely the sunwas safe in the hands of a potentate who could thus visibly reinforce itwith red light, and white! In their astonishment and awe, they stood withtheir long hair falling down over their foreheads, and their hands heldup to their eyes that they might gaze the farther across the dim, darkocean. The borrowed light of their bonfire was moving, slowly moving overthe watery sea. Fire and water were mixing and mingling on friendlyterms. Impossible! Incredible! Marvellous! Miraculous! They prostratedthemselves in their terror at Tu-Kila-Kila's feet. "Oh, great god, " theycried, in awe-struck tones, "your power is too vast! Spare us, spare us, spare us!"

As for Tu-Kila-Kila himself, he was not astonished at all. Strange as itsounds to us, he really believed in his heart what he said. Profoundlyconvinced of his own godhead, and abjectly superstitious as any of hisown votaries, he absolutely accepted as a fact his own suggestion, thatthe light he saw was the reflection of that his men had kindled. Theinterpretation he had put upon it seemed to him a perfectly natural andjust one. His worshippers, indeed, mere men that they were, might beterrified at the sight; but why should he, a god, take any special noticeof it?

He accepted his own superiority as implicitly as our European nobles andrulers accept theirs. He had no doubts himself, and he considered thosewho had little better than criminals. 

By and by, a smaller light detached itself by slow degrees from thegreater ones. The others stood still, and halted in mid-ocean. The lesserlight made as if it would come in the direction of Boupari. In point offact, the gig had put out in search of Felix and Muriel. 

Tu-Kila-Kila interpreted the facts at once, however, in his own way. "See, " he said, pointing with his plump forefinger once more, andencouraging with his words his terrified followers, "I am sending back alight again from the sun to my island. I am doing my work well. I amtaking care of my people. Fear not for your future. In the light is yetanother victim. A man and a woman will come to Boupari from the sun, tomake up for the man and woman whom we eat in our feast to-night. Give meplenty of victims, and you will have plenty of yam. Make haste, then;kill, eat; let us feast Tu-Kila-Kila! To-morrow the man and woman I havesent from the sun will come ashore on the reef, and reach Boupari. "

At the words, he stepped forward and raised that heavy tomahawk. Withone blow each he brained the two bound and defenceless victims on thealtar-stone of his fathers. The rest, a European hand shrinks fromrevealing. The orgy was too horrible even for description. 

And that was the land toward which, that moment, Felix Thurstan wasstruggling, with all his might, to carry Muriel Ellis, from the myriadclasping arms of a comparatively gentle and merciful ocean!

CHAPTER III. 

LAND; BUT WHAT LAND?

As the last glimmering lights of the Australasian died away to seaward, Felix Thurstan knew in his despair there was nothing for it now but tostrike out boldly, if he could, for the shore of the island. 

By this time the breakers had subsided greatly. Not, indeed, that the seaitself was really going down. On the contrary, a brisk wind was risingsharper from the east, and the waves on the open Pacific were growingeach moment higher and loppier. But the huge mountain of water thatwashed Muriel Ellis overboard was not a regular ordinary wave; it wasthat far more powerful and dangerous mass, a shoal-water breaker. TheAustralasian had passed at that instant over a submerged coral-bar, quitedeep enough, indeed, to let her cross its top without the slightestdanger of grazing, but still raised so high toward the surface as toproduce a considerable constant ground-swell, which broke in windyweather into huge sheets of surf, like the one that had just struck andwashed over the Australasian, carrying Muriel with it. The very samecause that produced the breakers, however, bore Felix on their summitrapidly landward; and once he had got well beyond the region of the barthat begot them, he found himself soon, to his intense relief, incomparatively calm shoal water. 

Muriel Ellis, for her part, was faint with terror and with thebuffeting of the waves; but she still floated by his side, upheld by thelife-belts. He had been able, by immense efforts, to keep unseparatedfrom her amid the rending surf of the breakers. Now that they foundthemselves in easier waters for a while, Felix began to strike outvigorously through the darkness for the shore. Holding up his companionwith one hand, and swimming with all his might in the direction where avague white line of surf, lit up by the red glare-of some fire farinland, made him suspect the nearest land to lie, he almost thought hehad succeeded at last, after a long hour of struggle, in feeling hisfeet, after all, on a firm coral bottom. 

At the very moment he did so, and touched the ground underneath, anothergreat wave, curling resistlessly behind him, caught him up on its crest, whirled him heavenward like a cork, and then dashed him down once more, apassive burden, on some soft and yielding substance, which he conjecturedat once to be a beach of finely powdered coral fragments. As he touchedthis beach for an instant, the undertow of that vast dashing breakersucked him back with its ebb again, a helpless, breathless creature; andthen the succeeding wave rolled him over like a ball, upon the beach asbefore, in quick succession. Four times the back-current sucked him underwith its wild pull in the self-same way, and four times the return waveflung him up upon the beach again like a fragment of sea-weed. Withfrantic efforts Felix tried at first to cling still to Muriel--to saveher from the irresistible force of that roaring surf--to snatch her fromthe open jaws of death by sheer struggling dint of thews and muscle. Hemight as well have tried to stem Niagara. The great waves, curlingirresistibly in huge curves landward, caught either of them up by turnson their arched summits, and twisted them about remorselessly, raisingthem now aloft on their foaming crest, beating them back now prone intheir hollow trough, and flinging them fiercely at last with pitilessenergy against the soft beach of coral. If the beach had been hard, theymust infallibly have been ground to powder or beaten to jelly by thecolossal force of those gigantic blows. Fortunately it was yielding, smooth, and clay-like, and received them almost as a layer of moistplaster of Paris might have done, or they would have stood no chance atall for their lives in that desperate battle with the blind and franticforces of unrelenting nature. 

No man who has not himself seen the surf break on one of thesefar-southern coral shores can form any idea in his own mind of the terrorand horror of the situation. The water, as it reaches the beach, rearsitself aloft for a second into a huge upright wall, which, advancingslowly, curls over at last in a hollow circle, and pounds down upon thesand or reef with all the crushing force of some enormous sledge-hammer. But after the fourth assault, Felix felt himself flung up high and dry bythe wave, as one may sometimes see a bit of light reed or pith flung upsome distance ahead by an advancing tide on the beach in England. In aninstant he steadied himself and staggered to his feet. Torn and bruisedas he was by the pummelling of the billows, he looked eagerly into thewater in search of his companion. The next wave flung up Muriel, as thelast had flung himself. He bent over her with a panting heart as she laythere, insensible, on the long white shore. Alive or dead? that was nowthe question. 

Raising her hastily in his arms, with her clothes all clinging wet andclose about her, Felix carried her over the narrow strip of tidal beach, above high-water level, and laid her gently down on a soft green bank ofshort tropical herbage, close to the edge of the coral. Then he bent overher once more, and listened eagerly at her heart. It still beat withfaint pulses--beat--beat--beat. Felix throbbed with joy. She was alive!alive! He was not quite alone, then, on that unknown island!

And strange as it seemed, it was only a little more than two short hourssince they had stood and looked out across the open sea over the bulwarksof the Australasian together!

But Felix had no time to moralize just then. The moment was clearlyone for action. Fortunately, he happened to carry three useful thingsin his pocket when he jumped overboard after Muriel. The first was apocket-knife; the second was a flask with a little whiskey in it; and thethird, perhaps the most important of all, a small metal box of wax vestamatches. Pouring a little whiskey into the cup of the flask, he held iteagerly to Muriel's lips. The fainting girl swallowed it automatically. Then Felix, stooping down, tried the matches against the box. They wereunfortunately wet, but half an hour's exposure, he knew, on sun-warmedstones, in that hot, tropical air, would soon restore them again. So heopened the box and laid them carefully out on a flat white slab of coral. After that, he had time to consider exactly where they were, and whattheir chances in life, if any, might now amount to. 

Pitch dark as it was, he had no difficulty in deciding at once by thegeneral look of things that they had reached a fringing reef, such as hewas already familiar with in the Marquesas and elsewhere. The reef was nodoubt circular, and it enclosed within itself a second or central island, divided from it by a shallow lagoon of calm, still water. He walked someyards inland. From where he now stood, on the summit of the ridge, hecould look either way, and by the faint reflected light of the stars, orthe glare of the great pyre that burned on the central island, he couldsee down on one side to the ocean, with its fierce white pounding surf, and on the other to the lagoon, reflecting the stars overhead, andmotionless as a mill-pond. Between them lay the low raised ridge ofcoral, covered with tall stems of cocoanut palms, and interspersed hereand there, as far as his eye could judge, with little rectangular clumpsof plantain and taro. 

But what alarmed Felix most was the fire that blazed so brightly toheaven on the central island; for he knew too well that meant--there were_men_ on the place; the land was inhabited. 

The cocoanuts and taro told the same doubtful tale. From the way theygrew, even in that dim starlight, Felix recognized at once they had allbeen planted. 

Still, he didn't hesitate to do what he thought best for Muriel's relieffor all that. Collecting a few sticks and fragments of palm-branches fromthe jungle about, he piled them into a heap, and waited patiently for hismatches to dry. As soon as they were ready--and the warmth of the stonemade them quickly inflammable--he struck a match on the box, andproceeded to light his fire by Muriel's side. As her clothes grew warmer, the poor girl opened her eyes at last, and, gazing around her, exclaimed, in blank terror, "Oh, Mr. Thurstan, where are we? What does all thismean? Where have we got to? On a desert island?"

"No, _not_ on a desert island, " Felix answered, shortly; "I'm afraid it'sa great deal worse than that. To tell you the truth, I'm afraid it'sinhabited. "

At that moment, by the hot embers of the great sacrificial pyre on thecentral hill, two of the savage temple-attendants, calling their god'sattention to a sudden blaze of flame upon the fringing reef, pointed withtheir dark forefingers and called out in surprise, "See, see, a fire onthe barrier! A fire! A fire! What can it mean? There are no men of ourpeople over there to-night. Have war-canoes arrived? Has some enemylanded?"

Tu-Kila-Kila leaned back, drained his cocoanut cup of intoxicating kava, and surveyed the unwonted apparition on the reef long and carefully. "Itis nothing, " he said at last, in his most deliberate manner, stroking hischeeks and chin contentedly with that plump round hand of his. "It isonly the victims; the new victims I promised you. Korong! Korong! Theyhave come ashore with their light from my home in the sun. They havebrought fire afresh--holy fire to Boupari. "

Three or four of the savages leaped up in fierce joy, and bowed beforehim as he spoke, with eager faces. "Oh, Tu-Kila-Kila!" the eldest amongthem said, making a profound reverence, "shall we swim across to the reefand fetch them home to your house? Shall we take over our canoes andbring back your victims!"

The god motioned them back with one outstretched palm. His eyes wereflushed and his look lazy. "Not to-night, my people, " he said;readjusting the garland of flowers round his neck, and giving a carelessglance at the well-picked bones that a few hours before had been twotrembling fellow creatures. "Tu-Kila-Kila has feasted his fill for thisevening. Your god is full; his heart is happy. I have eaten human flesh;I have drunk of the juice of the kava. Am I not a great deity? Can I notdo as I will? I frown, and the heavens thunder; I gnash my teeth, and theearth trembles. What is it to me if fresh victims come, or if they comenot? Can I not make with a nod as many as I will of them?" He took up twofresh finger-bones, clean gnawed of their flesh, and knocked themtogether in a wild tune, carelessly. "If Tu-Kila-Kila chooses, " he wenton, tapping his chest with conscious pride, "he can knock these bonestogether--so--and bid them live again. Is it not I who cause women andbeasts to bring forth their young? Is it not I who give the turtles theirincrease? And is it not a small thing to me, therefore, whether the seatosses up my victims from my home in the sun, or whether it does not? Letus leave them alone on the reef for to-night; to-morrow we will send overour canoes to fetch them. "

It was all pure brag, all pure guesswork; and yet, Tu-Kila-Kila himselfprofoundly believed it. 

As he spoke, the light from Felix's fire blazed out against the dark sky, stronger and clearer still; and through that cloudless tropical air thefigure of a man, standing for one moment between the flames and thelagoon, became distinctly visible to the keen and practised eyes of thesavages. "I see them? I see them; I see the victims!" the foremostworshipper exclaimed, rushing forward a little at the sight, and besidehimself with superstitious awe and surprise at Tu-Kila-Kila's presence. "Surely our god is great! He knows all things! He brings us meat fromthe setting sun, in ships of fire, in blazing canoes, across the goldenroad of the sun-bathed ocean!"

As for Tu-Kila-Kila himself, leaning on his elbow at ease, he gazedacross at the unexpected sight with very languid interest. He was a god, and he liked to see things conducted with proper decorum. This crowingand crying over a couple of spirits--mere ordinary spirits come ashorefrom the sun in a fiery boat--struck his godship as little short ofchildish. "Let them be, " he answered, petulantly, crushing a blossom inhis hand. "Let no man disturb them. They shall rest where they are tillto-morrow morning. We have eaten; we have drunk; our soul is happy. Thekava within us has made us like a god indeed. I shall give my ministerscharge that no harm happen to them. "

He drew a whistle from his side and whistled once. There was a moment'spause. Then Tu-Kila-Kila spoke in a loud voice again. "The King of Fire!"he exclaimed, in tones of princely authority. 

From within the hut there came forth slowly a second stalwart savage, bigbuilt and burly as the great god himself, clad in a long robe or cloak ofyellow feathers, which shone bright with a strange metallic gleam in theruddy light of the huge pile of li-wood. 

"The King of Fire is here, Tu-Kila-Kila, " the lesser god made answer, bending his head slightly. 

"Fire, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, like a monarch giving orders to his attendantminister, "if any man touch the newcomers on the reef before I cause mysun to rise to-morrow morning, scorch up his flesh with your flame, andconsume his bones to ash and cinder. If any woman go near them beforeTu-Kila-Kila bids, let her be rolled in palm-leaves, and smeared withoil, and light her up for a torch on a dark night to lighten our temple. "

The King of Fire bent his head in assent. "It is as Tu-Kila-Kila wills, "he answered, submissively. 

Tu-Kila-Kila whistled again, this time twice. "The King of Water!" heexclaimed, in the same loud tone of command as before. 

At the words, a man of about forty, tall and sinewy, clad in a short capeof white albatross feathers, and with a girdle of nautilus shellsinterspersed with red coral tied around his waist, came forth to thesummons. 

"The King of Water is here, " he said, bending his head, but not his knee, before the greater deity. 

"Water, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, with half-tipsy solemnity, "you are a godtoo. Your power is very great. But less than mine. Do, then, as I bidyou. If any man touch my spirits, whom I have brought from my home in thesun in a fiery ship, before I bid him to-morrow, overturn his canoe, anddrown him in lagoon or spring or ocean. If any woman go near them withoutTu-Kila-Kila's leave, bind her hand and foot with ropes of porpoise hide, and cast her out into the surf, and dash her with your waves, and pummelher to pieces. "

The King of Water bent his head a second time. "I am a great god, " heanswered, "before all others save you: but for you, Tu-Kila-Kila, I hasteto do your bidding. If any man disobey you, my billows shall rise andoverwhelm him in the sea. I am a great god. I claim each year manydrowned victims. "

"But not so many as me, " Tu-Kila-Kila interposed, his hand playing on hisknife with a faint air of impatience. 

"But not so many as you, " the minor god added, in haste, as if to appeasehis rising anger. "Fire and Water ever speed to do your bidding. "

Tu-Kila-Kila stood up, turned toward the distant flame, and waved hishands round and round three times before him. "Let this be for you all agreat taboo, " he said, glancing once more toward his awe-struckfollowers. "Now the mysteries are over. Tu-Kila-Kila will sleep. He haseaten of human flesh. He has drunk of cocoanut rum and of new kava. Hehas brought back his sun on its way in the heavens. He has sent itmessengers of fire to reinforce its strength. He has fetched from itmessengers in turn with fresh fire to Boupari, fire not lighted from anyearthly flame; fire new, divine, scorching, unspeakable. To-morrow wewill talk with the spirits he has brought. To-night we will sleep. Nowall go to your homes; and tell your women of this great taboo, lest theyspeak to the spirits, and fall into the hands of Fire or of Water. "

The savages dropped on their faces before the eye of their god and layquite still. They made a path as it were from the pyre to the temple doorwith their prostrate bodies. Tu-Kila-Kila, walking with unsteady stepsover their half-naked forms, turned to his hut in a drunken booze. Hewalked over them with no more compunction or feeling than over so manylogs. Why should he not, indeed? For he was a god, and they were hismeat, his servants, his worshippers. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE GUESTS OF HEAVEN. 

All that night through--their first lonely night on the island ofBoupari--Felix sat up by his flickering fire, wide awake, half expectingand dreading some treacherous attack of the unknown savages. From time totime he kept adding dry fuel to his smouldering pile; and he never ceasedto keep a keen eye both on the lagoon and the reef, in case an assaultshould be made upon them suddenly by land or water. He knew the SouthSeas quite well enough already to have all the possibilities ofmisfortune floating vividly before his eyes. He realized at once from hisown previous experience the full loneliness and terror of their unarmedcondition. 

For Boupari was one of those rare remote islets where the very rumor ofour European civilization has hardly yet penetrated. 

As for Muriel, though she was alarmed enough, of course, and intenselyshaken by the sudden shock she had received, the whole surroundings weretoo wholly unlike any world she had ever yet known to enable her to takein at once the utter horror of the situation. She only knew they werealone, wet, bruised, and terribly battered; and the Australasian had goneon, leaving them there to their fate on an unknown island. That, for themoment, was more than enough for her of accumulated misfortune. She cometo herself but slowly, and as her torn clothes dried by degrees beforethe fire and the heat of the tropical night, she was so far from fullyrealizing the dangers of their position that her first and principal fearfor the moment was lest she might take cold from her wet things dryingupon her. She ate a little of the plantain that Felix picked for her; andat times, toward morning, she dozed off into an uneasy sleep, from purefatigue and excess of weariness. As she slept, Felix, bending over her, with the biggest blade of his knife open in case of attack, watched withprofound emotion the rise and fall of her bosom, and hesitated withhimself, if the worst should come to the worst, as to what he ought to dowith her. 

It would be impossible to let a pure young English girl like that fallhelplessly into the hands of such bloodthirsty wretches as he knew theislanders were almost certain to be. Who could tell what namelessindignities, what incredible tortures they might wantonly inflict uponher innocent soul? Was it right of him to have let her come ashore atall? Ought he not rather to have allowed the more merciful sea to takeher life easily, without the chance or possibility of such additionalhorrors?

And now--as she slept--so calm and pure and maidenly--what was hisduty that minute, just there to her? He felt the blade of his knifewith his finger cautiously, and almost doubted. If only she could tellwhat things might be in store for her, would she not, herself, preferdeath, an honorable death, at the friendly hands of a tenderheartedfellow-countryman, to the unspeakable insults of these man-eatingPolynesians? If only he had the courage to release her by one blow, asshe lay there, from the coming ill! But he hadn't; he hadn't. Even onboard the Australasian he had been vaguely aware that he was getting veryfond of that pretty little Miss Ellis. And now that he sat there, afterthat desperate struggle for life with the pounding waves, mounting guardover her through the livelong night, his own heart told him plainly, intones he could not disobey, he loved her too well to dare what he thoughtbest in the end for her. 

Still, even so, he was brave enough to feel he must never let the veryworst of all befall her. He bethought him, in his doubt and agony, of howhis uncle, Major Thurstan, during the great Indian mutiny, had held hislonely bungalow, with his wife and daughter by his side, for three longhours against a howling mob of native insurgents; and how, when furtherresistance was hopeless, and that great black wave of angry humanityburst in upon them at last, the brave soldier had drawn his revolver, shot his wife and daughter with unerring aim, to prevent their fallingalive into the hands of the natives, and then blown his own brains outwith his last remaining cartridge. As his uncle had done at Jhansi, thirty years before, so he himself would do on that nameless Pacificisland--for he didn't know even now on what shore he had landed. If thesavages bore down upon them with hostile intent, and threatened Muriel, he would plunge his knife first into that innocent woman's heart; andthen bury it deep in his own, and die beside her. 

So the long night wore on--Muriel pillowed on loose cocoanut husk, dozingnow and again, and waking with a start to gaze round about her wildly, and realize once more in what plight she found herself; Felix crouchingby her feet, and keeping watch with eager eyes and ears on every side forthe least sign of a noiseless, naked footfall through the tangled growthof that dense tropical under-bush. Time after time he clapped his hand tohis ear, shell-wise, and listened and peered, with knitted brow, suspecting some sudden swoop from an ambush in the jungle of creepersbehind the little plantain patch. Time after time he grasped his knifehard, and puckered his eyebrows resolutely, and stood still with batedbreath for a fierce, wild leap upon his fancied assailant. But the nightwore away by degrees, a minute at a time, and no man came; and dawn beganto brighten the sea-line to eastward. 

As the day dawned, Felix could see more clearly exactly where he was, andin what surroundings. Without, the ocean broke in huge curling billows onthe shallow beach of the fringing reef with such stupendous force thatFelix wondered how they could ever have lived through its pounding surfand its fiercely retreating undertow. Within, the lagoon spread its calmlake-like surface away to the white coral shore of the central atoll. Between these two waters, the greater and the less, a waving palisade oftall-stemmed palm-trees rose on a narrow ribbon of circular land thatformed the fringing reef. All night through he had felt, with a strangeeerie misgiving, the very foundations of the land thrill under his feetat every dull thud or boom of the surf on its restraining barrier. Nowthat he could see that thin belt of shore in its actual shape and size, he was not astonished at this constant shock; what surprised him ratherwas the fact that such a speck of land could hold its own at all againstthe ceaseless cannonade of that seemingly irresistible ocean. 

He stood up, hatless, in his battered tweed suit, and surveyed the sceneof their present and future adventures. It took but a glance to show himthat the whole ground-plan of the island was entirely circular. In themidst of all rose the central atoll itself, a tiny mountain-peak, justprojecting with its hills and gorges to a few hundred feet above thesurface of the ocean. Outside it came the lagoon, with its placid ring ofglassy water surrounding the circular island, and separated from the seaby an equally circular belt of fringing reef, covered thick with wavingstems of picturesque cocoanut. It was on the reef they had landed, andfrom it they now looked across the calm lagoon with doubtful eyes towardthe central island. 

As soon as the sun rose, their doubts were quickly resolved into fearsor certainties. Scarcely had its rim begun to show itself distinctlyabove the eastern horizon, when a great bustle and confusion wasnoticeable at once on the opposite shore. Brown-skinned savages werecollecting in eager groups by a white patch of beach, and putting outrude but well-manned canoes into the calm waters of the lagoon. At sightof their naked arms and bustling gestures, Muriel's heart sank suddenlywithin her. "Oh, Mr. Thurstan, " she cried, clinging to his arm in herterror, "what does it all mean? Are they going to hurt us? Are thesesavages coming over? Are they coming to kill us?"

Felix grasped his trusty knife hard in his right hand, and swallowed agroan, as he looked tenderly down upon her. "Muriel, " he said, forgettingin the excitement of the moment the little conventionalities andcourtesies of civilized life, "if they are, trust me, you never shallfall alive into their cruel hands. Sooner than that--" he held up theknife significantly, with its open blade before her. 

The poor girl clung to him harder still, with a ghastly shudder. "Oh, it's terrible, terrible, " she cried, turning deadly pale. Then, after ashort pause, she added, "But I would rather have it so. Do as you say. Icould bear it from you. Promise me _that_, rather than that thosecreatures should kill me. "

"I promise, " Felix answered, clasping her hand hard, and paused, with theknife ever ready in his right, awaiting the approach of the half-nakedsavages. 

The boats glided fast across the lagoon, propelled by the paddles of thestalwart Polynesians who manned them, and crowded to the water's edgewith groups of grinning and shouting warriors. They were dressed inaprons of dracæna leaves only, with necklets and armlets of sharks'teeth and cowrie shells. A dozen canoes at least were making toward thereef at full speed, all bristling with spears and alive with noisy andboisterous savages. Muriel shrank back terror-stricken at the sight, asthey drew nearer and nearer. But Felix, holding his breath hard, grewsomewhat less nervous as the men approached the reef. He had seen enoughof Polynesian life before now to feel sure these people were not upon thewar-path. Whatever their ultimate intentions toward the castaways mightbe, their immediate object seemed friendly and good-humored. The boats, though large, were not regular war-canoes; the men, instead ofbrandishing their spears, and lunging out with them over the edge inthreatening attitudes, held them erect in their hands at rest, likestandards; they were laughing and talking, not crying their war-cry. Asthey drew near the shore, one big canoe shot suddenly a length or soahead of the rest; and its leader, standing on the grotesque carvedfigure that adorned its prow, held up both his hands open and emptybefore him, in sign of peace, while at the same time he shouted out aword or two three times in his own language, to reassure the castaways. 

Felix's eye glanced cautiously from boat to boat. "He says, 'We arefriends, '" the young man remarked in an undertone to his terrifiedcompanion. "I can understand his dialect. Thank Heaven, it's very closeto Fijian. I shall be able at least to palaver to these men. I don'tthink they mean just now to harm us. I believe we can trust them, at anyrate for the present. "

The poor girl drew back, in still greater awe and alarm than ever. "Oh, are they going to land here?" she cried, still clinging closer with bothhands to her one friend and protector. 

"Try not to look so frightened!" Felix exclaimed, with a warning glance. "Remember, much depends upon it; savages judge you greatly by whatdemeanor you happen to assume. If you're frightened, they know theirpower; if they see you're resolute, they suspect you have somesupernatural means of protection. Try to meet them frankly, as if youwere not afraid of them. " Then, advancing slowly to the water's edge, hecalled out aloud, in a strong, clear voice, a few words which Murieldidn't understand, but which were really the Fijian for "We also arefriendly. Our medicine is good. We mean no magic. We come to you fromacross the great water. We desire your peace. Receive us and protect us!"

At the sound of words which he could readily understand, and whichdiffered but little, indeed, from his own language, the leader on theforemost canoe, who seemed by his manner to be a great chief, turnedround to his followers and cried out in tones of superstitious awe, "Tu-Kila-Kila spoke well. These are, indeed, what he told us. Korong!Korong! They are spirits who have come to us from the disk of the sun, tobring us light and pure, fresh fire. Stay back there, all of you. You arenot holy enough to approach. I and my crew, who are sanctified by themysteries, we alone will go forward to meet them. "

As he spoke, a sudden idea, suggested by his words, struck Felix's mind. Superstition is the great lever by which to move the savage intelligence. Gathering up a few dry leaves and fragments of stick on the shore, helaid them together in a pile, and awaited in silence the arrival of theforemost islanders. The first canoe advanced slowly and cautiously, themen in it eying these proceedings with evident suspicion; the rest hungback, with their spears in array, and their hands just ready to use themwith effect should occasion demand it. 

The leader of the first canoe, coming close to the shore, jumped out uponthe reef in shallow water. Half a dozen of his followers jumped after himwithout hesitation, and brandished their weapons round their heads asthey advanced, in savage unison. But Felix, pretending hardly to noticethese hostile demonstrations, stepped boldly up toward his little pilewith great deliberation, though trembling inwardly, and proceeded beforetheir eyes to take a match from his box, which he displayedostentatiously, all glittering in the sun, to the foremost savage. Theleader stood by and watched him close with eyes of silent wonder. ThenFelix, kneeling down, struck the match on the box, and applied it, as itlighted, to the dry leaves beside him. 

A chorus of astonishment burst unanimously from the delighted natives asthe dry leaves leaped all at once into a tongue of flame, and the littlepile caught quickly from the fire in the vesta. 

The leader looked hard at the two white faces, and then at the fire onthe beach, with evident approbation. "It is as Tu-Kila-Kila said, " heexclaimed at last with profound awe. "They are spirits from the sun, andthey carry with them pure fire in shining boxes. "

Then, advancing a pace and pointing toward the canoe, he motioned Felixand Muriel to take their seats within it with native savage politeness. "Tu-Kila-Kila has sent for you, " he said, in his grandest aristocraticair, "for your chief is a gentleman. He wishes to receive you. He sawyour message-fire on the reef last night, and he knew you had come. Hehas made you a very great Taboo. He has put you under protection of Fireand Water. "

The people in the boats, with one accord, shouted out in wild chorus, asif to confirm his words, "Taboo! Taboo! Tu-Kila-Kila has said it! Taboo!Taboo! Ware Fire! Ware Water!"

Though the dialect in which they spoke differed somewhat from that in usein Fiji, Felix could still make out with care almost every word of whatthe chief had said to him; and the universal Polynesian expression, "Taboo, " in particular, somewhat reassured him as to their friendlyintentions. Among remote heathen islanders like these, he felt sure, thevery word itself was far too sacred to be taken in vain. They wouldrespect its inviolability. He turned round to Muriel. "We must go withthem, " he said, shortly. "It's our one chance left of life now. Don't betoo terrified; there is still some hope. They say somebody they callTu-Kila-Kila has tabooed us. No one will dare to hurt us against so greata Taboo; for Tu-Kila-Kila is evidently some very important king or chief. You must step into the boat. It can't be avoided. If any harm isthreatened, be sure I won't forget my promise. "

Muriel shrank back in alarm, and clung still to his arm now asnaturally as she would have clung to a brother's. "Oh, Mr. Thurstan, "she cried--"Felix, I don't know what to say; I _can't_ go with them. "

Felix put his arm gently round her girlish waist, and half lifted herinto the boat in spite of her reluctance. "You must, " he said, with greatfirmness. "You must do as I say. I will watch over you, and take care ofyou. If the worst comes, I have always my knife, and I won't forget. Now, friend, " he went on, in Fijian, turning round to the chief, as he tookhis seat in the canoe fearlessly among all those dusky, half-cladfigures, "we are ready to start. We do not fear. We wish to go. Takeus to Tu-Kila-Kila. "

And all the savages around, shouting in their surprise and awe, exclaimedonce more in concert, "Tu-Kila-Kila is great. We will take them, as hebids us, forthwith to heaven. "

"What do they say?" Muriel cried, clinging close to the white man's sidein her speechless terror. "Do you understand their language?"

"Well, I can't quite make it out, " Felix answered, much puzzled; "that isto say, not every word of it. They say they'll take us somewhere, I don'tquite know where; but in Fijian, the word would certainly mean toheaven. "

Muriel shuddered visibly. "You don't think, " she said, with a tremuloustongue, "they mean to kill us?"

"No, I don't _think_ so, " Felix replied, not over-confidently. "They saidwe were Taboo. But with savages like these, of course, one can never inany case be quite certain. "

CHAPTER V. 

ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS. 

They rowed across the lagoon, a mysterious procession, almost insilence--the canoe with the two Europeans going first, the othersfollowing at a slight distance--and landed at last on the brink of thecentral island. 

Several of the Boupari people leaped ashore at once; then they helpedFelix and Muriel from the frail bark with almost deferential care, andled the way before them up a steep white path, that zigzagged through theforest toward the centre of the island. As they went, a band of nativespreceded them in regular line of march, shouting "Taboo, taboo!" at shortintervals, especially as they neared any group of fan-palm cottages. Thewomen whom they met fell on their knees at once, till the strangeprocession had passed them by; the men only bowed their heads thrice, andmade a rapid movement on their breasts with their fingers, which remindedMuriel at once of the sign of the cross in Catholic countries. 

So on they wended their way in silence through the deep tropical jungle, along a pathway just wide enough for three to walk abreast, till theyemerged suddenly upon a large cleared space, in whose midst grew a greatbanyan-tree, with arms that dropped and rooted themselves like buttressesin the soil beneath. Under the banyan-tree a raised platform stood uponposts of bamboo. The platform was covered with fine network in yellow andred; and two little stools occupied the middle, as if placed there onpurpose and waiting for their occupants. 

The man who had headed the first canoe turned round to Felix and motionedhim forward. "This is Heaven, " he said glibly, in his own tongue. "Spirits, ascend it!"

Felix, much wondering what the ceremony could mean, mounted the platformwithout a word, in obedience to the chief's command, closely followed byMuriel, who dared not leave him for a second. 

"Bring water!" the chief said, shortly, in a voice of authority to oneof his followers. 

The man handed up a calabash with a little water in it. The chief tookthe rude vessel from his hands in a reverential manner, and poured a fewdrops of the contents on Felix's head; the water trickled down over hishair and forehead. Involuntarily, Felix shook his head a little at theunexpected wetting, and scattered the drops right and left on his neckand shoulders. The chief watched this performance attentively withprofound satisfaction. Then he turned to his attendants. 

"The spirit shakes his head, " he said, with a deeply convinced air. "Allis well. Heaven has chosen him. Korong! Korong! He is accepted for hispurpose. It is well! It is well! Let us try the other one. "

He raised the calabash once more, and poured a few drops in like manneron Muriel's dark hair. The poor girl, trembling in every limb, shook herhead also in the same unintentional fashion. The chief regarded her withstill more complacent eyes. 

"It is well, " he observed once more to his companions, smiling. "She, too, gives the sign of acceptance. Korong! Korong! Heaven is well pleasedwith both. See how her body trembles!"

At that moment a girl came forward with a little basket of fruits. Thechief chose a banana with care from the basket, peeled it with his duskyhands, broke it slowly in two, and handed one half very solemnly toFelix. 

"Eat, King of the Rain, " he said, as he presented it. "The offering ofHeaven. "

Felix ate it at once, thinking it best under the circumstances not todemur at all to anything his strange hosts might choose to impose uponhim. 

The chief handed the other half just as solemnly to Muriel. "Eat, Queenof the Clouds, " he said, as he placed it in her fingers. "The offering ofHeaven. "

Muriel hesitated. She didn't know what his words meant, and it seemed toher rather the offering of a very dirty and unwashed savage. The chiefeyed her hard. "For God's sake eat it, my child; he tells you to eat it!"Felix exclaimed in haste. Muriel lifted it to her lips and swallowed itdown with difficulty. The man's dusky hands didn't inspire confidence. 

But the chief seemed relieved when he had seen her swallow it. "All iswell done, " he said, turning again to his followers. "We have obeyed thewords of Tu-Kila-Kila, and his orders that he gave us. We have offeredthe strangers, the spirits from the sun, as a free gift to Heaven, andHeaven has accepted them. We have given them fruits, the fruits of theearth, and they have duly eaten them. Korong! Korong! The King of theRain and the Queen of the Clouds have indeed come among us. They aretruly gods. We will take them now, as he bid us, to Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"What have they done to us?" Muriel asked aside, in a terrified undertoneof Felix. 

"I can't quite make out, " Felix answered in the selfsame voice. "Theycall us the King of the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds in their ownlanguage. I think they imagine we've come from the sun and that we're asort of spirits. "

At the sound of these words the girl who held the basket of fruits gave asudden start. It almost seemed to Muriel as if she understood them. Butwhen Muriel looked again she gave no further sign. She merely held herpeace, and tried to appear wholly undisconcerted. 

The chief beckoned them down from the platform with a wave of his hand. They rose and followed him. As they rose the people around them bowed lowto the ground. Felix could see they were bowing to Muriel and himself, not merely to the chief. A doubt flitted strangely across his mind for amoment. What could it all mean? Did they take the two strangers, then, for supernatural beings? Had they enrolled them as gods? If so, it mightserve as some little protection for them. 

The procession formed again, three and three, three and three, in solemnsilence. Then the chief walked in front of them with measured steps, andFelix and Muriel followed behind, wondering. As they went, the cry roselouder and louder than before, "Taboo! Taboo!" People who met them fellon their faces at once, as the chief cried out in a loud tone, "The Kingof the Rain! The Queen of the Clouds! Korong! Korong! They are coming!They are coming!"

At last they reached a second cleared space, standing in a large gardenof manilla, loquat, poncians, and hibiscus-trees. It was entered by agate, a tall gate of bamboo posts. At the gate all the followers fellback to right and left, awe-struck. Only the chief went calmly on. Hebeckoned to Felix and Muriel to follow him. 

They entered, half terrified. Felix still grasped his open knife in hishand, ready to strike at any moment that might be necessary. The chiefled them forward toward a very large tree near the centre of the garden. At the foot of the tree stood a hut, somewhat bigger and better builtthan any they had yet seen; and in front of the trunk a stalwart savage, very powerfully built, but with a sinister look in his cruel and lustfuleye, was pacing up and down, like a sentinel on guard, a long spear inhis right hand, and a tomahawk in his left, held close by his side, allready for action. As he prowled up and down he seemed to be peeringwarily about him on every side, as if each instant he expected to be setupon by an enemy. But as the chief approached, the people without set uponce more the cry of "Taboo! Taboo!" and the stalwart savage by the tree, laying down his spear and letting his tomahawk fall free, dropped in asecond the air of watchful alarm, and advanced with some courtesy togreet the new-comers. 

"We have found them, Tu-Kila-Kila, " the chief said, presenting them tothe god with a graceful wave of his hand. "We have found the spirits thatyou brought from the sun, with the fire in their hands, and the light inboxes. We have taken them to Heaven. Heaven has accepted them. We haveoffered them fruit, and they have eaten the banana. The King of theRain--the Queen of the Clouds! Korong! Receive them!"

Tu-Kila-Kila glanced at them with an approving glance, strangelycompounded of pleasure and terror. "They are plump, " he said shortly. "They are indeed Korong. My sun has sent me an acceptable present. "

"What is your will that we should do with them?" the chief asked in adeeply deferential tone. 

Tu-Kila-Kila looked hard at Muriel--such a hateful look that the knifetrembled irresolute for a second in Felix's hand. "Give them two freshhuts, " he said, in a lordly way. "Give them divine platters. Give themall that they need. Make everything right for them. "

The chief bowed, and retired with an awed air from the presence. Exactlyas he passed a certain line on the ground, marked white with a row ofcoral-sand, Tu-Kila-Kila seized his spear and his tomahawk once more, andmounted guard, as before, at the foot of the great tree where they hadseen him pacing. An instantaneous change seemed to Muriel to come overhis demeanor at that moment. While he spoke with the chief she noticedhe looked all cruelty, lust, and hateful self-indulgence. Now that hepaced up and down warily in front of that sacred floor, peering aroundhim with keen suspicion, he seemed rather the personification ofwatchfulness, fear, and a certain slavish bodily terror. Especially, sheobserved, he cast upon Felix, as he went, a glance of angry hate; and yethe did not attempt to hurt or molest him in any way, defenceless as theyboth were before those numerous savages. 

As they emerged from the enclosure, the girl with the fruit basket stoodnear the gate, looking outward from the wall, her face turned away fromthe awful home of Tu-Kila-Kila. At the moment when Muriel passed, to herimmense astonishment the girl spoke to her. "Don't be afraid, missy, " shesaid in English, in a rather low voice, without obtrusively approachingthem. "Boupari man not going to hurt you. Me going to be your servant. Mename Mali. Me very good girl. Me take plenty care of you. "

The unexpected sound of her own language, in the midst of so muchunmitigated savagery, took Muriel fairly by surprise. She looked hard atthe girl, but thought it wisest to answer nothing. This particular youngwoman, indeed, was just as dark, and to all appearance just as much of asavage, as any of the rest of them. But she could speak English, at anyrate! And she said she was to be Muriel's servant!

The chief led them back to the shore, talking volubly all the way inPolynesia to Felix. His dialect differed so much from the Fijian thatwhen he spoke first Felix could hardly follow him. But he gatheredvaguely, nevertheless, that they were to be well housed and fed for thepresent at the public expense; and even that something which the chiefclearly regarded as a very great honor was in store for them in thefuture. Whatever these people's particular superstition might be, itseemed pretty evident at least that it told in the strangers' favor. Felix almost began to hope they might manage to live there prettytolerably for the next two or three weeks, and perhaps to signal in timeto some passing Australian liner. 

The rest of that wonderful eventful day was wholly occupied withpractical details. Before long, two adjacent huts were found for them, near the shore of the lagoon; and Felix noticed with pleasure, not onlythat the huts themselves were new and clean, but also that the chief tookgreat care to place round both of them a single circular line of whitecoral-sand, like the one he had noticed at Tu-Kila-Kila's palace-temple. He felt sure this white line made the space within taboo. No native woulddare without leave to cross it. 

When the line was well marked out round the two huts together, the chiefwent away for a while, leaving the Europeans within their broad whitecircle, guarded by an angry-looking band of natives with long spears atrest, all pointed inward. The natives themselves stood well without thering, but the points of their spears almost reached the line, and it wasclear they would not for the present permit the Europeans to leave thecharmed circle. 

Presently, the chief returned again, followed by two other natives inofficial costumes. One of them was a tall and handsome young man, dressedin a long robe or cloak of yellow feathers. The other was stouter, andperhaps forty or thereabouts; he wore a short cape of white albatrossplumes, with a girdle of shells at his waist, interspersed with redcoral. 

"The King of Fire will make Taboo, " the chief said, solemnly. 

The young man with the cloak of yellow feathers stepped forward andspoke, toeing the line with his left foot, and brandishing a lightedstick in his right hand. "Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!" he cried aloud, withemphasis. "If any man dare to transgress this line without leave, I burnhim to ashes. If any woman, I scorch her to a cinder. Taboo to the Kingof the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds. Taboo! Taboo! Taboo! Korong! Isay it. "

He stepped back into the ranks with an air of duty performed. The chieflooked about him curiously a moment. "The King of Water will make Taboo, "he repeated after a pause, in the same deep tone of profound conviction. 

The stouter man in the short white cape stepped forward in his turn. Hetoed the line with his naked left foot; in his brown right hand hecarried a calabash of water. "Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!" he exclaimed aloud, pouring out the water upon the ground symbolically. "If any man dare totransgress this line without leave, I drown him in his canoe. If anywoman, I drag her alive into the spring as she fetches water. Taboo tothe King of the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds. Taboo! Taboo! Taboo!Korong! I say it. "

"What does it all mean?" Muriel whispered, terrified. 

Felix explained to her, as far as he could, in a few hurried sentences. "There's only one word in it I don't understand, " he added, hastily, "andthat's Korong. It doesn't occur in Fiji. They keep saying we're Korong, whatever that may mean; and evidently they attach some very greatimportance to it. "

"Let the Shadows come forward, " the chief said, looking up with an air ofdignity. 

A good-looking young man, and the girl who said her name was Mali, stepped forth from the crowd, and fell on their knees before him. 

The chief laid his hand on the young man's shoulder and raised him up. "The Shadow of the King of the Rain, " he cried, turning him three timesround. "Follow him in all his incomings and his outgoings, and servehim faithfully! Taboo! Taboo! Pass within the sacred circle!"

He clapped his hands. The young man crossed the line with a sort ofreverent reluctance, and took his place within the ring, close up toFelix. 

The chief laid his hand on Mali's shoulder. "The Shadow of the Queen ofthe Clouds, " he said, turning her three times round. "Follow her in allher incomings and outgoings, and serve her faithfully. Taboo! Taboo!Pass within the sacred circle!"

Then he waved both hands to Felix. "Go where you will now, " he said. "Your Shadow will follow you. You are free as the rain that drops whereit will. You are as free as the clouds that roam through heaven. No manwill hinder you. "

And in a moment the spearmen dropped their spears in concert, the crowdfell back, and the villagers dispersed as if by magic, to their ownhouses. 

But Felix and Muriel were left alone beside their huts, guarded only insilence by their two mystic Shadows. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FIRST DAYS IN BOUPARI. 

Throughout that day the natives brought them, from time to time, numerouspresents of yam, bananas, and bread-fruit, neatly arranged in littlepalm-leaf baskets. A few of them brought eggs as well, and one offeringeven included a live chicken. But the people who brought them, and whowere mostly young girls just entering upon womanhood, did not venture tocross the white line of coral-sand that surrounded the huts; they laiddown their presents, with many salaams, on the ground outside, and thenwaited with a half-startled, half-reverent air for one or other of thetwo Shadows to come out and fetch them. As soon as the baskets werecarried well within the marked line, the young girls exhibited every signof pleasure, and calling aloud, "Korong! Korong!"--that mysteriousPolynesian word of whose import Felix was ignorant--they retired oncemore by tortuous paths through the surrounding jungle. 

"Why do they bring us presents?" Felix asked at last of his Shadow, afterthis curious pantomime had been performed some three or four times. "Arethey always going to keep us in such plenty?"

The Shadow looked back at him with an air of considerable surprise. "Theybring presents, of course, " he said, in his own tongue, "because they arebadly in want of rain. We have had much drought of late in Boupari; weneed water from heaven. The banana-bushes wither; the flowers on thebread-fruit tree do not swell to breadfruit; the yams are thirsty. Therefore the fathers send their daughters with presents, maidens of thevillages, all marriageable girls, to ask for rainfall. But they willalways provide for you, and also for the Queen, however you behave; foryou are both Korong. Tu-Kila-Kila has said so, and Heaven has acceptedyou. "

"What do you mean by Korong?" Felix asked, with some trepidation. 

The Shadow merely looked back at him with a sort of blank surprise thatanybody should be ignorant of so simple a conception. "Why, Korong isKorong, " he answered, aghast. "You are Korong yourself. The Queen of theClouds is Korong, too. You are both Korong; that is why they all treatyou with such respect and reverence. "

And that was as much as Felix could elicit by his subtlest questions fromhis taciturn Shadow. 

In fact, it was clear that in the open, at least, the Shadow was averseto being observed in familiar conversation with Felix. During the heat ofthe day, however, when they sat alone within the hut, he was much morecommunicative. Then he launched forth pretty freely into talk about theisland and its life, which would no doubt have largely enlightened Felix, had it not been for two drawbacks to their means of inter-communication. In the first place, the Boupari dialect, though agreeing in allessentials with the Polynesian of Fiji, nevertheless contained a greatmany words and colloquial expressions unknown to the Fijians; this beingparticularly the case, as Felix soon remarked, in the whole vocabulary ofreligious rites and ceremonies. And in the second place, the Shadow wasso rigidly bound by his own narrow and insular set of ideas, that hecouldn't understand the difficulty Felix felt in throwing himself intothem. Over and over again, when Felix asked him to explain some word orcustom, he would repeat, with naïve impatience, "Why, Korong is Korong, "or "Tula is just Tula; even a child must surely know what Tula is; muchmore yourself, who are indeed Korong, and who have come from the sun tobring fresh fire to us. "

In the adjoining hut, Muriel, who was now beginning in some small degreeto get rid of her most pressing fear for the immediate future, and whomthe obvious reality of the taboo had reassured for the moment, sat withMali, her own particular Shadow, unravelling the mystery of the girl'sknowledge of English. 

Mali, indeed, like the other Shadow, showed every disposition to indulgein abundant conversation, as soon as she found herself well within thehut, alone with her mistress, and secluded from the prying eyes of allthe other islanders. 

"Don't you be afraid, missy, " she said, with genuine kindliness in hertone, as soon as the gifts of yam and bread-fruit had all been dulyhoused and garnered. "No harm come to you. You Korong, you know. You verygreat Taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila send King of Fire and King of Water to maketaboo over you, so nobody hurt you. "

Muriel burst into tears at the sound of her own language from those duskylips, and exclaimed through her sobs, clinging to the girl's hand forcomfort as she spoke, "Why, how did you ever come to speak English?--tellme. "

Mali looked up at her with a half-astonished air. "Oh, I servant inQueensland, of course, missy, " she answered, with great composure. "Laborvessel come to my island, far away, four, five years ago, steal boy, steal woman. My papa just kill my mamma, because he angry with her, so nowant daughters. So my papa sell me and my sister for plenty rum, plentytobacco, to gentlemen in labor vessel. Gentlemen in labor vessel takeJani and me away, away, to Queensland. Big sea; long voyage. We stopthere three yam--three years--do service; then great chief in Queenslandsend us back to my island. My island too faraway; gentleman on ship notfind it out; so he land us in little boat on Boupari. Boupari people maketemple slave of us. " And that was all; to her quite a commonplace, everyday history. 

"I see, " Muriel cried. "Then you've been for three years in Australia!And there you learned English. Why, what did you do there?"

Mali looked back at her with the same matter-of-fact air of composure asbefore. "Oh, me nurse at first, " she said, shortly. "Then after, mehousemaid, live three year in gentleman's house, good gentleman that buyme. Take care of little girl; clean rooms; do everything. Me know how tomake English lady quite comfortable. Me tell that to chief; that make himsay, 'Mali, you be Queenie's Shadow. '"

To Muriel in her loneliness even such companionship as that was indeed aconsolation. "Oh, I'm so glad you told him, " she cried. "If we have tostop here long, before a ship takes us off, it'll be so nice to have youhere all the time with me. You won't go away from me ever, will you?You'll always stop with me!"

The girl's surprise showed more profoundly than ever. "Me can't goaway, " she answered, with emphasis. "Me your Shadow. That great Taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila great god. If me go away, Tu-Kila-Kila kill me and eat me. "

Muriel started back in horror. "But, Mali, " she said, looking hard at thegirl's pleasant brown face, "if you were three years in Australia, you'rea Christian, surely!"

The girl nodded her head in passive acquiescence. "Me Christian inAustralia, " she answered. "Of course me Christian. All folks makeChristian when him go to Queensland. That what for me call Mali, and mysister Jani. We have other names on my own island; but when we go toQueensland, gentleman baptize us, call us Mali and Jani. Me Methodist inQueensland. Methodist very good. But Methodist god no live in Boupari. Not any good be Methodist here any longer. Tu-Kila-Kila god here. Himvery powerful. "

"What! Not that dreadful creature that they took us to see this morning!"Muriel exclaimed, in horror. "Oh, Mali, you can't mean to say they thinkhe's a _god_, that awful man there!"

Mali nodded her assent with profound conviction. "Yes, yes; him god, " sherepeated, confidently. "Him very powerful. My sister Jani go too near himtemple, against taboo--because her not belong-a Tu-Kila-Kila temple; andlast night, when it great feast, plenty men catch Jani, and tie him up inrope; and Tu-Kila-Kila kill him, and plenty Boupari men help Tu-Kila-Kilaeat up Jani. "

She said it in the same simple, matter-of-fact way as she had said thatshe was a nurse for three years in Queensland. To her it was a commonincident of everyday life. Such accidents _will_ happen, if you breaktaboo and go too near forbidden temples. 

But Muriel drew back, and let the pleasant-looking brown girl's hand dropsuddenly. "You can't mean it, " she cried. "You can't mean he's a god!Such a wicked man as that! Oh, his very look's too horrible. "

Mali drew back in her turn with a somewhat terrified air, and peepedsuspiciously around her, as if to make sure whether any one waslistening. "Oh, hush, " she said, anxiously. "Don't must talk like that. If Tu-Kila-Kila hear, him scorch us up to ashes. Him very great god!Him good! Him powerful!"

"How can he be good if he does such awful things?" Muriel exclaimed, energetically. 

Mali peered around her once more with terrified eyes in the same uneasyway. "Take care, " she said again. "Him god! Him powerful! Him can do nowrong. Him King of the Trees! Him King of Heaven! On Boupari island, Methodist god not much; no god so great like Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"But a _man_ can't be a god!" Muriel exclaimed, contemptuously. "He'snothing but a man! a savage! A cannibal!"

Mali looked back at her in wondering surprise. "Not in Queensland, " sheanswered, calmly--to her, all the world naturally divided itself intoQueensland and Polynesia--"no god in Queensland. Governor, him very greatchief; but him no god like Tu-Kila-Kila. Methodist god in sky, him onlygod that live in Queensland. But no use worship Methodist god over herein Boupari. Him no live here. Tu-Kila-Kila live here. All god here makeout of man. Live in man. Korong! What for you say a man can't be a god!You god yourself! White gentleman there, god! Korong, Korong. Chief putyou in Heaven, so make you a god. People pray to you now. People bringyou presents. "

"You don't mean to say, " Muriel cried, "they bring me these thingsbecause they think me a goddess?"

Mali nodded a grave assent. "Same like people give money in church inQueensland, " she answered, promptly. "Ask you make rain, make plentycrop, make bread-fruit grow, make banana, make plantain. You Korong now. While your time last, Queenie, people give you plenty of present. "

"While my time last?" Muriel repeated, with a curious sense of discomfortcreeping over her slowly. 

The girl nodded an easy assent. "Yes, while your time last, " sheanswered, laying a small bundle of palm-leaves at Muriel's back by way ofa cushion. "For now you Korong. By and by, Korong pass to somebody else. This year, you Korong. So people worship you. "

But nothing that Muriel could say would induce the girl further toexplain her meaning. She shook her head and looked very wise. "When a godcome into somebody, " she said, nodding toward Muriel in a mysterious way, "then him god himself; him Korong. When the god go away from him, himKorong no longer; somebody else Korong. Queenie Korong now; so peopleworship him. While him time last, people plenty kind to him. "

The day passed away, and night came on. As it approached, heavy cloudsdrifted up from eastward. Mali busied herself with laying out a rough bedin the hut for Muriel, and making her a pillow of soft moss and thecurious lichen-like material that hangs parasitic from the trees, and iscommonly known as "old man's beard. " As both Mali and Felix assured herconfidently no harm would come to her within so strict a Taboo, Muriel, worn out with fatigue and terror, lay down at last and slept soundly onthis native substitute for a bedstead. She slept without dreaming, whileMali lay at her feet, ready at a moment's call. It was all so strange;and yet she was too utterly wearied to do otherwise than sleep, in spiteof her strange and terrible surroundings. 

Felix slept, too, for some hours, but woke with a start in the night. Itwas raining heavily. He could hear the loud patter of a fierce tropicalshower on the roof of his hut. His Shadow, at his feet, slept stillunmoved; but when Felix rose on his elbow, the Shadow rose on a sudden, too, and confronted him curiously. The young man heard the rain; then hebowed down his face with an awed air, not visible, but audible, in thestill darkness. "It has come!" he said, with superstitious terror. "Ithas come at last! my lord has brought it!"

After that, Felix lay awake for some hours, hearing the rain on the roof, and puzzled in his own head by a half-uncertain memory. What was it inhis school reading that that ceremony with the water indefinitelyreminded him of? Wasn't there some Greek or Roman superstition aboutshaking your head when water was poured upon it? What could thatsuperstition be, and what light might it cast on that mysteriousceremony? He wished he could remember; but it was so long since he'd readit, and he never cared much at school for Greek or Roman antiquities. 

Suddenly, in a lull of the rain, the whole context at once came back witha rush to him. He remembered now he had read it, some time or other, insome classical dictionary. It was a custom connected with Greeksacrifices. The officiating priest poured water or wine on the head ofthe sheep, bullock, or other victim. If the victim shook its head andknocked off the drops, that was a sign that it was fit for the sacrifice, and that the god accepted it. If the victim trembled visibly, that was amost favorable omen. If it stood quite still and didn't move its neck, then the god rejected it as unfit for his purpose. Couldn't _that_ be themeaning of the ceremony performed on Muriel and himself in "Heaven" thatmorning? Were they merely intended as human sacrifices? Were they to bekept meanwhile and, as it were, fed up for the slaughter? It was toohorrible to believe; yet it almost looked like it. 

He wished he knew the meaning of that strange word, "Korong. " Clearly, itcontained the true key to the mystery. 

Anyhow, he had always his trusty knife. If the worst came to theworst--those wretches should never harm his spotless Muriel. 

For he loved her to-night; he would watch over and protect her. He wouldsave her at least from the deadliest of insults. 

CHAPTER VII. 

INTERCHANGE OF CIVILITIES. 

All night long, without intermission, the heavy tropical rain descendedin torrents; at sunrise it ceased, and a bright blue vault of sky stoodin a spotless dome over the island of Boupari. 

As soon as the sun was well risen, and the rain had ceased, one shynative girl after another came straggling up timidly to the white linethat marked the taboo round Felix and Muriel's huts. They came with morebaskets of fruit and eggs. Humbly saluting three times as they drew near, they laid down their gifts modestly just outside the line, with many loudejaculations of praise and gratitude to the gods in their own language. 

"What do they say?" Muriel asked, in a dazed and frightened way, lookingout of the hut door, and turning in wonder to Mali. 

"They say, 'Thank you, Queenie, for rain and fruits, '" Mali answered, unconcerned, bustling about in the hut. "Missy want to wash him face andhands this morning? Lady always wash every day over yonder inQueensland. "

Muriel nodded assent. It was all so strange to her. But Mali went to thedoor and beckoned carelessly to one of the native girls just outside, whodrew near the line at the summons, with a somewhat frightened air, putting one finger to her mouth in coyly uncertain savage fashion. 

"Fetch me water from the spring!" Mali said, authoritatively, inPolynesian. Without a moment's delay the girl darted off at the top ofher speed, and soon returned with a large calabash full of fresh coolwater, which she lay down respectfully by the taboo line, not daring tocross it. 

"Why didn't you get it yourself?" Muriel asked of her Shadow, ratherrelieved than otherwise that Mali hadn't left her. It was something inthese dire straits to have somebody always near who could at least speaka little English. 

Mali started back in surprise. "Oh, that would never do, " she answered, catching a colloquial phrase she had often heard long before inQueensland. "Me missy's Shadow. That great Taboo. If me go away out ofmissy's sight, very big sin--very big danger. Man-a-Boupari catch me andkill me like Jani, for no me stop and wait all the time on missy. "

It was clear that human life was held very cheap on the island ofBoupari. 

Muriel made her scanty toilet in the hut as well as she was able, withthe calabash and water, aided by a rough shell comb which Mali hadprovided for her. Then she breakfasted, not ill, off eggs and fruit, which Mali cooked with some rude native skill over the open-air firewithout in the precincts. 

After breakfast, Felix came in to inquire how she had passed the night inher new quarters. Already Muriel felt how odd was the contrast betweenthe quiet politeness of his manner as an English gentleman and thestrange savage surroundings in which they both now found themselves. Civilization is an attribute of communities; we necessarily leave itbehind when we find ourselves isolated among barbarians or savages. Butculture is a purely personal and individual possession; we carry it withus wherever we go; and no circumstances of life can ever deprive us ofit. 

As they sat there talking, with a deep and abiding sense of awe at thechange (Muriel more conscious than ever now of how deep was her interestin Felix Thurstan, who represented for her all that was dearest and bestin England), a curious noise, as of a discordant drum or tom-tom, beatenin a sort of recurrent tune, was heard toward the hills; and at its veryfirst sound both the Shadows, flinging themselves upon their faces withevery sign of terror, endeavored to hide themselves under the native matswith which the bare little hut was roughly carpeted. 

"What's the matter?" Felix cried, in English, to Mali; for Muriel hadalready explained to him how the girl had picked up some knowledge of ourtongue in Queensland. 

Mali trembled in every limb, so that she could hardly speak. "Tu-Kila-Kila come, " she answered, all breathless. "No blackfellow lookat him. Burn blackfellow up. You and Missy Korong. All right for you. Goout to meet him!"

"Tu-Kila-Kila is coming, " the young man-Shadow said, in Polynesian, almost in the same breath, and no less tremulously. "We dare not lookupon his face lest he burn us to ashes. He is a very great Taboo. Hisface is fire. But you two are gods. Step forth to receive him. "

Felix took Muriel's hand in his, somewhat trembling himself, and led herforth on to the open space in front of the huts to meet the man-god. Shefollowed him like a child. She was woman enough for that. She hadimplicit trust in him. 

As they emerged, a strange procession met their eyes unawares, comingdown the zig-zag path that led from the hills to the shore of the lagoon, where their huts were situated. At its head marched two men--tall, straight, and supple--wearing huge feather masks over their faces, andbeating tom-toms, decorated with long strings of shiny cowries. Afterthem, in order, came a sort of hollow square of chiefs or warriors, surrounding with fan-palms a central object all shrouded from the viewwith the utmost precaution. This central object was covered with a hugeregal umbrella, from whose edge hung rows of small nautilus and othershells, so as to form a kind of screen, like the Japanese portières nowso common in English doorways. Two supporters held it up, one on eitherside, in long cloaks of feathers. Under the umbrella, a man seemed tomove; and as he approached, the natives, to right and left, fledprecipitately to their huts, snatching up their naked little ones fromthe ground as they went, and crying aloud, "Taboo, Taboo! He comes! hecomes. Tu-Kila-Kila! Tu-Kila-Kila!"

The procession wound slowly on, unheeding these common creatures, till itreached the huts. Then the chiefs who formed the hollow square fell backone by one, and the man under the umbrella, with his two supporters, cameforward boldly. Felix noticed that they crossed without scruple the thickwhite line of sand which all the other natives so carefully respected. The man within the umbrella drew aside the curtain of hanging nautilusshells. His face was covered with a thin mask of paper mulberry bark; butFelix knew he was the self-same person whom they had seen the day beforein the central temple. 

Tu-Kila-Kila's air was more insolent and arrogant than even before. Hewas clearly in high spirits. "You have done well, O King of the Rain, " hesaid, turning gayly to Felix; "and you too, O Queen of the Clouds; youhave done right bravely. We have all acquitted ourselves as our peoplewould wish. We have made our showers to descend abundantly from heaven;we have caused the crops to grow; we have wetted the plantain bushes. See; Tu-Kila-Kila, who is so great a god, has come from his own home onthe hills to greet you. "

"It has certainly rained in the night, " Felix answered, dryly. 

But Tu-Kila-Kila was not to be put off thus. Adjusting his thin mask orveil of bark, so as to hide his face more thoroughly from the inferiorgod, he turned round once more to the chiefs, who even so hardly dared tolook openly upon him. Then he struck an attitude. The man was clearlybursting with spiritual pride. He knew himself to be a god, and wasfilled with the insolence of his supernatural power. "See, my people, " hecried, holding up his hands, palm outward, in his accustomed god-likeway; "I am indeed a great deity--Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth, Life ofthe World, Master of Time, Measurer of the Sun's Course, Spirit ofGrowth, Creator of the Harvest, Master of Mortals, Bestower of Breathupon Men, Chief Pillar of Heaven!"

The warriors bowed down before their bloated master with unquestioningassent. "Giver of Life to all the host of the gods, " they cried, "you areindeed a mighty one. Weigher of the equipoise of Heaven and Earth, weacknowledge your might; we give you thanks eternally. "

Tu-Kila-Kila swelled with visible importance. "Did I not tell you, mymeat, " he exclaimed, "I would bring you new gods, great spirits from thesun, fetchers of fire from my bright home in the heavens? And have theynot come? Are they not here to-day? Have they not brought the preciousgift of fresh fire with them?"

"Tu-Kila-Kila speaks true, " the chiefs echoed, submissively, with bentheads. 

"Did I not make one of them King of the Rain?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked oncemore, stretching one hand toward the sky with theatrical magnificence. "Did I not declare the other Queen of the Clouds in Heaven? And have Inot caused them to bring down showers this night upon our crops? Has notthe dry earth drunk? Am I not the great god, the Saviour of Boupari?"

"Tu-Kila-Kila says well, " the chiefs responded, once more, in unanimouschorus. 

Tu-Kila-Kila struck another attitude with childish self-satisfaction. "I go into the hut to speak with my ministers, " he said, grandiloquently. "Fire and Water, wait you here outside while I enter and speak with myfriends from the sun, whom I have brought for the salvation of the cropsto Boupari. "

The King of Fire and the King of Water, supporting the umbrella, bowedassent to his words. Tu-Kila-Kila motioned Felix and Muriel into thenearest hut. It was the one where the two Shadows lay crouching in terroramong the native mats. As the god tried to enter, the two coweringwretches set up a loud shout, "Taboo! Taboo! Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!"Tu-Kila-Kila retreated with a contemptuous smile. "I want to see youalone, " he said, in Polynesian, to Felix. "Is the other hut empty? Ifnot, go in and cut their throats who sit there, and make the place asolitude for Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"There is no one in the hut, " Felix answered, with a nod, concealing hisdisgust at the command as far as he was able. 

"That is well, " Tu-Kila-Kila answered, and walked into it carelessly. Felix followed him close and deemed it best to make Muriel enter also. 

As soon-as they were alone, Tu-Kila-Kila's manner altered greatly. "Come, now, " he said, quite genially, yet with a curious under-current of hatein his steely gray eye; "we three are all gods. We who are in heaven needhave no secrets from one another. Tell me the truth; did you really cometo us direct from the sun, or are you sailing gods, dropped from a greatcanoe belonging to the warriors who seek laborers for the white men inthe distant country?"

Felix told him briefly, in as few words as possible, the story of theirarrival. 

Tu-Kila-Kila listened with lively interest, then he said, verydecisively, with great bravado, "It was _I_ who made the big wave washyour sister overboard. I sent it to your ship. I wanted a Korong just nowin Boupari. It was _I_ who brought you. "

"You are mistaken, " Felix said, simply, not thinking it worth while tocontradict him further. "It was a purely natural accident. "

"Well, tell me, " the savage god went on once more, eying him close andsharp, "they say you have brought fresh fire from the sun with you, andthat you know how to make it burst out like lightning at will. My peoplehave seen it. They tell me the wonder. I wish to see it too. We are allgods here; we need have no secrets. Only, I didn't want to let thosecommon people outside see I asked you to show me. Make fire leap forth. Idesire to behold it. "

Felix took out the match-box from his pocket, and struck a vestacarefully. Tu-Kila-Kila looked on with profound interest. "It iswonderful, " he said, taking the vesta in his own hand as it burned, andexamining it closely. "I have heard of this before, but I have never seenit. You are indeed gods, you white men, you sailors of the sea. " Heglanced at Muriel. "And the woman, too, " he said, with a horrible leer, "the woman is pretty. "

Felix took the measure of his man at once. He opened his knife, and heldit up threateningly. "See here, fellow, " he said, in a low, slow tone, but with great decision, "if you dare to speak or look like that at thatlady--god or no god, I'll drive this knife straight up to the handle inyour heart, though your people kill me for it afterward ten thousandtimes over. I am not afraid of you. These savages may be afraid, and maythink you are a god; but if you are, then I am a god ten thousand timesstronger than you. One more word--one more look like that, I say--andI plunge this knife remorselessly into you. "

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back, and smiled benignly. Stalwart ruffian as he was, and absolute master of his own people's lives, he was yet afraid in a wayof the strange new-comer. Vague stories of the men with white faces--the"sailing gods"--had reached him from time to time; and though only twicewithin his memory had European boats landed on his island, he yet knewenough of the race to know that they were at least very powerfuldeities--more powerful with their weapons than even he was. Besides, aman who could draw down fire from heaven with a piece of wax and a littlemetal box might surely wither him to ashes, if he would, as he stoodbefore him. The very fact that Felix bearded him thus openly to his faceastonished and somewhat terrified the superstitious savage. Everybodyelse on the island was afraid of him; then certainly a man who was notafraid must be the possessor of some most efficacious and magicalmedicine. His one fear now was lest his followers should hear anddiscover his discomfiture. He peered about him cautiously, with thatcareful gleam shining bright in his eye; then he said with a leer, in avery low voice, "We two need not quarrel. We are both of us gods. Neitherof us is the stronger. We are equal, that's all. Let us live likebrothers, not like enemies, on the island. "

"I don't want to be your brother, " Felix answered, unable to conceal hisloathing any more. "I hate and detest you. "

"What does he say?" Muriel asked, in an agony of fear at the savage'sblack looks. "Is he going to kill us?"

"No, " Felix answered, boldly. "I think he's afraid of us. He's going todo nothing. You needn't fear him. "

"Can she not speak?" the savage asked, pointing with his finger somewhatrudely toward Muriel. "Has she no voice but this, the chatter of birds?Does she not know the human language?"

"She can speak, " Felix replied, placing himself like a shield betweenMuriel and the astonished savage. "She can speak the language of thepeople of our distant country--a beautiful language which is as farsuperior to the speech of the brown men of Polynesia as the sun in theheavens is superior to the light of a candlenut. But she can't speak thewretched tongue of you Boupari cannibals. I thank Heaven she can't, forit saves her from understanding the hateful things your people would sayof her. Now go! I have seen already enough of you. I am not afraid. Remember, I am as powerful a god as you. I need not fear. You cannot hurtme. "

A baleful light gleamed in the cannibal's eye. But he thought it best totemporize. Powerful as he was on his island, there was one thing yet morepowerful by far than he; and that was Taboo--the custom and superstitionhanded down from his ancestors, These strangers were Korong; he dare nottouch them, except in the way and manner and time appointed by custom. Ifhe did, god as he was, his people themselves would turn and rend him. Hewas a god, but he was bound on every side by the strictest taboos. Hedare not himself offer violence to Felix. 

So he turned with a smile and bided his time. He knew it would come. Hecould afford to laugh. Then, going to the door, he said, with his grandaffable manner to his chiefs around, "I have spoken with the gods, myministers, within. They have kissed my hands. My rain has fallen. All iswell in the land. Arise, let us go away hence to my temple. "

The savages put themselves in marching order at once. "It is the voice ofa god, " they said, reverently. "Let us take back Tu-Kila-Kila to histemple home. Let us escort the lord of the divine umbrella. Wherever heis, there trees and plants put forth green leaves and flourish. At hisbidding flowers bloom and springs of water rise up in fountains. Hispresence diffuses heavenly blessings. "

"I think, " Felix said, turning to poor, terrified Muriel, "I've sent thewretch away with a bee in his bonnet. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CUSTOMS OF BOUPARI. 

Human nature cannot always keep on the full stretch of excitement. It waswonderful to both Felix and Muriel how soon they settled down into aquiet routine of life on the island of Boupari. A week passed away--twoweeks--three weeks--and the chances of release seemed to grow slendererand slenderer. All they could do now was to wait for the stray accidentof a passing ship, and then try, if possible, to signal it, or to put outto it in a canoe, if the natives would allow them. 

Meanwhile, their lives for the moment seemed fairly safe. Though for thefirst few days they lived in constant alarm, this feeling, after a time, gave way to one of comparative security. The strange institution of Tabooprotected them more efficiently in their wattled huts than the wholepolice force of London could have done in a Belgravian mansion. Therethieves break through and steal, in spite of bolts and bars andmetropolitan constables; but at Boupari no native, however daring orhowever wicked, would ever venture to transgress the narrow line of whitecoral sand which protected the castaways like an intangible wall from allouter interference. Within this impalpable ring-fence they wereabsolutely safe from all rude intrusion, save that of the two Shadows, who waited upon them, day and night, with unfailing willingness. 

In other respects, considering the circumstances, their life was an easyone. The natives brought them freely of their simple store--yam, taro, bread-fruit, and cocoanut, with plenty of fish, crabs, and lobsters, aswell as eggs by the basketful, and even sometimes chickens. They requiredno pay beyond a nod and a smile, and went away happy at those slenderrecognitions. Felix discovered, in fact, that they had got into a regionwhere the arid generalizations of political economy do not apply; whereAdam Smith is unread, and Mill neglected; where the medium of exchange isan unknown quantity, and where supply and demand readjust themselvescontinuously by simpler and more generous principles than the familiarEuropean one of "the higgling of the market. "

The people, too, though utter savages, were not in their own wayaltogether unpleasing. It was their customs and superstitions, ratherthan themselves, that were so cruel and horrible. Personally, they seemedfor the most part simple-minded and good natured creatures. At first, indeed, Muriel was afraid to venture for a step beyond the precincts oftheir own huts; and it was long before she could make up her mind to goalone through the jungle paths with Mali, unaccompanied by Felix. But bydegrees she learned that she could walk by herself (of course, with theinevitable Shadow ever by her side) over the whole island, and meeteverywhere with nothing from men, women, and children but the utmostrespect and gracious courtesy. The young lads, as she passed, would standaside from the path, with downcast eyes, and let her go by with all thepoliteness of chivalrous English gentlemen. The old men would raise theireyes, but cross their hands on their breasts, and stand motionless for afew minutes till she got almost out of sight. The women would bring theirpretty brown babies for the fair English lady to admire or to pat on thehead; and when Muriel now and again stooped down to caress some fatlittle naked child, lolling in the dust outside the hut, with truetropical laziness, the mothers would run up at the sight with delight andjoy, and throw themselves down in ecstacies of gratitude for the noticeshe had taken of their favored little ones. "The gods of Heaven, " theywould say, with every sign of pleasure, "have looked graciously upon ourUnaloa. "

At first Felix and Muriel were mainly struck with the politeness anddeference which the natives displayed toward them. But after a time Felixat least began to observe, behind it all, that a certain amount ofaffection, and even of something like commiseration as well, seemed to bemingled with the respect and reverence showered upon them by their hosts. The women, especially, were often evidently touched by Muriel's innocenceand beauty. As she walked past their huts with her light, girlish tread, they would come forth shyly, bowing many times as they approached, andoffer her a long spray of the flowering hibiscus, or a pretty garland ofcrimson ti-leaves, saying at the same time, many times over, in their owntongue, "Receive it, Korong; receive it, Queen of the Clouds! You aregood. You are kind. You are a daughter of the Sun. We are glad you havecome to us. "

A young girl soon makes herself at home anywhere; and Muriel, protectedalike by her native innocence and by the invisible cloak of Polynesiantaboo, quickly learned to understand and to sympathize with these poordusky mothers. One morning, some weeks after their arrival, she passeddown the main street of the village, accompanied by Felix and their twoattendants, and reached the _marae_--the open forum or place of publicassembly--which stood in its midst; a circular platform, surrounded bybread-fruit trees, under whose broad, cool shade the people were sittingin little groups and talking together. They were dressed in the regularold-time festive costume of Polynesia; for Boupari, being a small andremote island, too insignificant to be visited by European ships, retained still all its aboriginal heathen manners and customs. The sightwas, indeed, a curious and picturesque one. The girls, large-limbed, soft-skinned, and with delicately rounded figures, sat on the ground, laughing and talking, with their knees crossed under them; their wristswere encinctured with girdles of dark-red dracæna leaves, their swellingbosoms half concealed, half accentuated by hanging necklets of flowers. Their beautiful brown arms and shoulders were bare throughout; theirlong, black hair was gracefully twined and knotted with bright scarletflowers. The men, strong and stalwart, sat behind on short stools orlounged on the buttressed roots of the bread-fruit trees, clad like thewomen in narrow waist-belts of the long red dracæna leaves, with neckletsof sharks' teeth, pendent chain of pearly shells, a warrior's cap ontheir well-shaped heads, and an armlet of native beans, arranged belowthe shoulder, around their powerful arms. Altogether, it was a strikingand beautiful picture. Muriel, now almost released from her early senseof fear, stood still to look at it. 

The men and girls were laughing and chatting merrily together. Most ofthem were engaged in holding up before them fine mats; and a row ofmulberry cloth, spread along on the ground, led to a hut near one side ofthe _marae_. Toward this the eyes of the spectators were turned. "What isit, Mali?" Muriel whispered, her woman's instinct leading her at once toexpect that something special was going on in the way of localfestivities. 

And Mali answered at once, with many nods and smiles, "All right, MissyQueenie. Him a wedding, a marriage. "

The words had hardly escaped her lips when a very pretty young girl, half smothered in flowers, and decked out in beads and fancy shells, emerged slowly from the hut, and took her way with stately tread alongthe path carpeted with native cloth. She was girt round the waist withrich-colored mats, which formed a long train, like a court dress, trailing on the ground five or six feet behind her. 

"That's the bride, I suppose, " Muriel whispered, now reallyinterested--for what woman on earth, wherever she may be, can resistthe seductive delights of a wedding?

"Yes, her a bride, " Mali answered; "and ladies what follow, them herbridesmaids. "

At the word, six other girls, similarly dressed, though without thetrain, and demure as nuns, emerged from the hut in slow order, two andtwo, behind her. 

Muriel and Felix moved forward with natural curiosity toward the scene. The natives, now ranged in a row along the path, with mats turned inward, made way for them gladly. All seem pleased that Heaven should thusauspiciously honor the occasion; and the bride herself, as well as thebridegroom, who, decked in shells and teeth, advanced from the oppositeside along the path to meet her, looked up with grateful smiles at thetwo Europeans. Muriel, in return, smiled her most gracious and girlishrecognition. As the bride drew near, she couldn't refrain from bendingforward a little to look at the girl's really graceful costume. As shedid so, the skirt of her own European dress brushed for a second againstthe bride's train, trailed carelessly many yards on the ground behindher. 

Almost before they could know what had happened, a wild commotion arose, as if by magic, in the crowd around them. Loud cries of "Taboo! Taboo!"mixed with inarticulate screams, burst on every side from the assemblednatives. In the twinkling of an eye they were surrounded by an angry, threatening throng, who didn't dare to draw near, but, standing a yard ortwo off, drew stone knives freely and shook their fists, scowling, in thestrangers' faces. The change was appalling in its electric suddenness. Muriel drew back horrified, in an agony of alarm. "Oh, what have I done!"she cried, piteously, clinging to Felix for support. "Why on earth arethey angry with us?"

"I don't know, " Felix answered, taken aback himself. "I can't say exactlyin what you've transgressed. But you must, unconsciously, in some wayhave offended their prejudices. I hope it's not much. At any rate they'reclearly afraid to touch us. "

"Missy Queenie break taboo, " Mali explained at once, with Polynesianfrankness. "That make people angry. So him want to kill you. MissyQueenie touch bride with end of her dress. Korong may smile onbride--that very good luck; but Korong taboo; no must touch him. "

The crowd gathered around them, still very threatening in attitude, yetclearly afraid to approach within arm's-length of the strangers. Murielwas much frightened at their noise and at their frantic gestures. "Comeaway, " she cried, catching Felix by the arm once more. "Oh, what are theygoing to do to us? Will they kill us for this? I'm so horribly afraid!Oh, why did I ever do it!"

The poor little bride, meanwhile, left alone on the carpet, and unnoticedby everybody, sank suddenly down on the mats where she stood, buried herface in her hands, and began to sob as if her heart would break. Evidently, something very untoward of some sort had happened to the duskylady on her wedding morning. 

The final touch was too much for poor Muriel's overwrought nerves. She, too, gave way in a tempest of sobs, and, subsiding on one of the nativestools hard by, burst into tears herself with half-hysterical violence. 

Instantly, as she did so, the whole assembly seemed to change its mindagain as if by contagious magic. A loud shout of "She cries; the Queen ofthe Clouds cries!" went up from all the assembled mob to heaven. "It is agood omen, " Toko, the Shadow, whispered in Polynesian to Felix, seeinghis puzzled look. "We shall have plenty of rain now; the clouds willbreak; our crops will flourish. " Almost before she understood it, Murielwas surrounded by an eager and friendly crowd, still afraid to draw near, but evidently anxious to see and to comfort and console her. Many of thewomen eagerly held forward their native mats, which Mali took from them, and, pressing them for a second against Muriel's eyes, handed them backwith just a suspicion of wet tears left glistening in the corner. Thehappy recipients leaped and shouted with joy. "No more drought!" theycried merrily, with loud shouts and gesticulations. "The Queen of theClouds is good: she will weep well from heaven upon my yam and taroplots!"

Muriel looked up, all dazed, and saw, to her intense surprise, the crowdwas now nothing but affection and sympathy. Slowly they gathered incloser and closer, till they almost touched the hem of her robe; then themen stood by respectfully, laying their fingers on whatever she hadwetted with her tears, while the women and girls took her hand in theirsand pressed it sympathetically. Mali explained their meaning with readyinterpretation. "No cry too much, them say, " she observed, nodding herhead sagely. "Not good for Missy Queenie to cry too much. Them say, kindlady, be comforted. "

There was genuine good-nature in the way they consoled her; and Felix wastouched by the tenderness of those savage hearts; but the additionalexplanation, given him in Polynesian by his own Shadow, tended somewhatto detract from the disinterestedness of their sympathy. "They say, 'Itis good for the Queen of the Clouds to weep, '" Toko said, with frankbluntness; "'but not too much--for fear the rain should wash away all ouryam and taro plants. '"

By this time the little bride had roused herself from her stupor, and, smiling away as if nothing had happened, said a few words in a very lowvoice to Felix's Shadow. The Shadow turned most respectfully to hismaster, and, touching his sleeve-link, which was of bright gold, said, ina very doubtful voice, "She asks you, oh king, will you allow her, justfor to-day, to wear this ornament?"

Felix unbuttoned the shining bauble at once, and was about to hand it tothe bride with polite gallantry. "She may wear it forever, for the matterof that, if she likes, " he said, good-humoredly. "I make her a presentof it. "

But the bride drew back as before in speechless terror, as he held outhis hand, and seemed just on the point of bursting out into tears againat this untoward incident. The Shadow intervened with fortunateperception of the cause of the misunderstanding. "Korong must not touchor give anything to a bride, " he said, quietly; "not with his own hand. He must not lay his finger on her; that would be unlucky. But he may handit by his Shadow. " Then he turned to his fellow-tribesmen. "These gods, "he said, in an explanatory voice, like one bespeaking forgiveness, "though they are divine, and Korong, and very powerful--see, they havecome from the sun, and they are but strangers in Boupari--they do not yetknow the ways of our island. They have not eaten of human flesh. They donot understand Taboo. But they will soon be wiser. They mean very well, but they do not know. Behold, he gives her this divine shining ornamentfrom the sun as a present!" And, taking it in his hand, he held it up fora moment to public admiration. Then he passed on the trinketostentatiously to the bride, who, smiling and delighted, hung it low onher breast among her other decorations. 

The whole party seemed so surprised and gratified at this proof ofcondescension on the part of the divine stranger that they crowded roundFelix once more, praising and thanking him volubly. Muriel, anxious toremove the bad impression she had created by touching the bride's dress, hastily withdrew her own little brooch and offered it in turn to theShadow as an additional present. But Toko, shaking his head vigorously, pointed with his forefinger many times to Mali. "Toko say him no can takeit, " Mali explained hastily, in her broken English. "Him no your Shadow;me your Shadow; me do everything for you; me give it to the lady. " And, taking the brooch in her hand, she passed it over in turn amid loud criesof delight and shouts of approval. 

Thereupon, the ceremony began all over again. They seemed by theirintervention to have interrupted some set formula. At its close the womencrowded around Muriel and took her hand in theirs, kissing it many timesover, with tears in their eyes, and betraying an immense amount ofgenuine feeling. One phrase in Polynesian they repeated again and again;a phrase that made Felix's cheek turn white, as he leaned over the poorEnglish girl with a profound emotion. 

"What does it mean that they say?" Muriel asked at last, perceiving itwas all one phrase, many times repeated. 

Felix was about to give some evasive explanation, when Mali interposedwith her simple, unthinking translation. "Them say, Missy Queenie verygood and kind. Make them sad to think. Make them cry to see her. Makethem cry to see Missy Queenie Korong. Too good. Too pretty. "

"Why so?" Muriel exclaimed, drawing back with some faint presentiment ofunspeakable horror. 

Felix tried to stop her; but the girl would not be stopped. "Because, when Korong time up, " she answered, blurting it out, "Korong must--"

Felix clapped his hand to her mouth in wild haste, and silenced her. Heknew the worst now. He had divined the truth. But Muriel, at least, mustbe spared that knowledge. 

CHAPTER IX. 

SOWING THE WIND. 

Vaguely and indefinitely one terrible truth had been forced by slowdegrees upon Felix's mind; whatever else Korong meant, it implied atleast some fearful doom in store, sooner or later, for the persons whobore it. How awful that doom might be, he could hardly imagine; but hemust devote himself henceforth to the task of discovering what its naturewas, and, if possible, of averting it. 

Yet how to reconcile this impending terror with the other obvious factsof the situation? the fact that they were considered divine beings andtreated like gods; and the fact that the whole population seemed reallyto regard them with a devotion and kindliness closely bordering onreligious reverence? If Korongs were gods, why should the people want tokill them? If they meant to kill them, why pay them meanwhile suchrespect and affection?

One point at least was now, however, quite clear to Felix. While thenatives, especially the women, displayed toward both of them in theirpersonal aspect a sort of regretful sympathy, he could not help noticingat the same time that the men, at any rate, regarded them also largelyin an impersonal light, as a sort of generalized abstraction of thepowers of nature--an embodied form of the rain and the weather. Theislanders were anxious to keep their white guests well supplied, wellfed, and in perfect health, not so much for the strangers' sakes as fortheir own advantage; they evidently considered that if anything wentwrong with either of their two new gods, corresponding misfortunes mighthappen to their crops and the produce of their bread-fruit groves. Somemysterious sympathy was held to subsist between the persons of thecastaways and the state of the weather. The natives effusively thankedthem after welcome rain, and looked askance at them, scowling, after longdry spells. It was for this, no doubt, that they took such pains toprovide them with attentive Shadows, and to gird round their movementswith taboos of excessive stringency. Nothing that the new-comers said ordid was indifferent, it seemed, to the welfare of the community; plentyand prosperity depended upon the passing state of Muriel's health, andfamine or drought might be brought about at any moment by the slightestimprudence in Felix's diet. 

How stringent these taboos really were Felix learned by slow degreesalone to realize. From the very beginning he had observed, to be sure, that they might only eat and drink the food provided for them; that theywere supplied with a clean and fresh-built hut, as well as with brand-newcocoanut cups, spoons, and platters; that no litter of any sort wasallowed to accumulate near their enclosure; and that their Shadows neverleft them, or went out of their sight, by day or by night, for a singlemoment. Now, however, he began to perceive also that the Shadows werethere for that very purpose, to watch over them, as it were, like guards, on behalf of the community; to see that they ate or drank no tabooedobject; to keep them from heedlessly transgressing any unwritten law ofthe creed of Boupari; and to be answerable for their good behaviorgenerally. They were partly servants, it was true, and partly sureties;but they were partly also keepers, and keepers who kept a close andconstant watch upon the persons of their prisoners. Once or twice Felix, growing tired for the moment of this continual surveillance, had tried togive Toko the slip, and to stroll away from his hut, unattended, for awalk through the island, in the early morning, before his Shadow hadwaked; but on each such occasion he found to his surprise that, as heopened the hut door, the Shadow rose at once and confronted him angrily, with an inquiring eye; and in time he perceived that a thin string wasfastened to the bottom of the door, the other end of which was tied tothe Shadow's ankle; and this string could not be cut without letting falla sort of latch or bar which closed the door outside, only to be raisedagain by some external person. 

Clearly, it was intended that the Korong should have no chance of escapewithout the knowledge of the Shadow, who, as Felix afterward learned, would have paid with his own body by a cruel death for the Korong'sdisappearance. 

He might as well have tried to escape his own shadow as to escape the onethe islanders had tacked on to him. 

All Felix's energies were now devoted to the arduous task of discoveringwhat Korong really meant, and what possibility he might have of savingMuriel from the mysterious fate that seemed to be held in store for them. 

One evening, about six weeks after their arrival in the island, the youngEnglishman was strolling by himself (after the sun sank low in heaven)along a pretty tangled hill-side path, overhung with lianas and rope-liketropical creepers, while his faithful Shadow lingered a step or twobehind, keeping a sharp lookout meanwhile on all his movements. 

Near the top of a little crag of volcanic rock, in the center of thehills, he came suddenly upon a hut with a cleared space around it, somewhat neater in appearance than any of the native cottages he had yetseen, and surrounded by a broad white belt of coral sand, exactly likethat which ringed round and protected their own enclosure. But whatspecially attracted Felix's attention was the fact that the space outsidethis circle had been cleared into a regular flower-garden, quite Europeanin the definiteness and orderliness of its quaint arrangement. 

"Why, who lives here?" Felix asked in Polynesian, turning round insurprise to his respectful Shadow. 

The Shadow waved his hand vaguely in an expansive way toward the sky, ashe answered, with a certain air of awe, often observable in his speechwhen taboos were in question, "The King of Birds. A very great god. Hespeaks the bird language. "

"Who is he?" Felix inquired, taken aback, wondering vaguely to himselfwhether here, perchance, he might have lighted upon some stray andshipwrecked compatriot. 

"He comes from the sun like yourselves, " the Shadow answered, alldeference, but with obvious reserve. "He is a very great god. I may notspeak much of him. But he is not Korong. He is greater than that, andless. He is Tula, the same as Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"Is he as powerful as Tu-Kila-Kila?" Felix asked, with intense interest. 

"Oh, no, he's not nearly so powerful as that, " the Shadow answered, halfterrified at the bare suggestion. "No god in heaven or earth is likeTu-Kila-Kila. This one is only king of the birds, which is a littleprovince, while Tu-Kila-Kila is king of heaven and earth, of plantsand animals, of gods and men, of all things created. At his nod the skyshakes and the rocks tremble. But still, this god is Tula, likeTu-Kila-Kila. He is not for a year. He goes on forever, till some othersupplants him. "

"You say he comes from the sun, " Felix put in, devoured with curiosity. "And he speaks the bird language? What do you mean by that? Does he speaklike the Queen of the Clouds and myself when we talk together?"

"Oh, dear, no, " the Shadow answered, in a very confident tone. "Hedoesn't speak the least bit in the world like that. He speaks shrillerand higher, and still more bird-like. It is chatter, chatter, chatter, like the parrots in a tree; tirra, tirra, tirra; tarra, tarra, tarra; la, la, la; lo, lo, lo; lu, lu, lu; li la. And he sings to himself all thetime. He sings this way--"

And then the Shadow, with that wonderful power of accurate mimicry whichis so strong in all natural human beings, began to trill out at once, with a very good Parisian accent, a few lines from a well-known song in"La Fille de Madame Angot:"

"Quand on conspi-re, Quand sans frayeur On pent se di-re Conspirateur, Pour tout le mon-de Il faut avoir Perruque blon-de Et collet noir-- Perruque blon-de Et collet noir. "

"That's how the King of the Birds sings, " the Shadow said, as hefinished, throwing back his head, and laughing with all his might at hisown imitation. "So funny, isn't it? It's exactly like the song of thepink-crested parrot. "

"Why, Toko, it's French, " Felix exclaimed, using the Fijian word for aFrenchman, which the Shadow, of course, on his remote island, had neverbefore heard. "How on earth did he come here?"

"I can't tell you, " Toko answered, waving his arms seaward. "He came fromthe sun, like yourselves. But not in a sun-boat. It had no fire. He camein a canoe, all by himself. And Mali says"--here the Shadow lowered hisvoice to a most mysterious whisper--"he's a man-a-oui-oui. "

Felix quivered with excitement. "Man-a-oui-oui" is the universal nameover semi-civilized Polynesia for a Frenchman. Felix seized upon it withavidity. "A man-a-oui-oui!" he cried, delighted. "How strange! Howwonderful! I must go in at once to his hut and see him!"

He had lifted his foot and was just going to cross the white line ofcoral-sand, when his Shadow, catching him suddenly and stoutly round thewaist, pulled him back from the enclosure with every sign of horror, alarm, and astonishment. "No, you can't go, " he cried, grappling with himwith all his force, yet using him very tenderly for all that, as becomesa god. "Taboo! Taboo there!"

"But I am a god myself, " Felix cried, insisting upon his privileges. Ifyou have to submit to the disadvantages of taboo, you may as well claimits advantages as well. "The King of Fire and the King of Water crossedmy taboo line. Why shouldn't I cross equally the King of the Birds', then?"

"So you might--as a rule, " the Shadow answered with promptitude. "You areboth gods. Your taboos do not cross. You may visit each other. You maytransgress one another's lines without danger of falling dead on theground as common men would do if they broke taboo-lines. But this is theMonth of Birds. The king is in retreat. No man may see him except his ownShadow, the Little Cockatoo, who brings him his food and drink. Do yousee that hawk's head, stuck upon the post by the door at the side. Thatis his Special Taboo. He keeps it for this month. Even gods must respectthat sign, for a reason which it would be very bad medicine to mention. While the Month of Birds lasts, no man may look upon the king or hearhim. If they did, they would die, and the carrion birds would eat them. Come away. This is dangerous. "

Scarcely were the words well out of his mouth when from the recesses ofthe hut a rollicking French voice was heard, trilling out merrily:

"Quand on con-spi-re, Quand, sans frayeur--"

Without waiting for more, the Shadow seized Felix's arm in an agony ofterror. "Come away!" he cried, hurriedly, "come away! What will becomeof us? This is horrible, horrible! We have broken taboo. We have heardthe god's voice. The sky will fall on us. If his Shadow were to find itout and tell my people, my people would tear us limb from limb. Quick, quick! Hide away! Let us run fast through the forest before any mandiscover it. "

The Shadow's voice rang deep with alarm. Felix felt he dare not triflewith this superstition. Profound as was his curiosity about themysterious Frenchman, he was compelled to bottle up his eagerness andanxiety for the moment, and patiently wait till the Month of Birds hadrun its course, and taken its inconvenient taboo along with it. Theselimitations were terrible. Yet he counted much upon the information theFrenchman could give him. The man had been some time on the island, itwas clear, and doubtless he understood its ways thoroughly; he mightcast some light at last upon the Korong mystery. 

So he went back through the woods with a heart somewhat lighter. 

Not far from their own huts he met Muriel and Mali. 

As they walked home together, Felix told his companion in a very fewwords the strange discovery about the Frenchman, and the impenetrabletaboo by which he was at present surrounded. Muriel drew a deep sigh. "Oh, Felix, " she said--for they were naturally by this time very much athome with one another, "did you ever know anything so dreadful as themystery of these taboos? It seems as if we should never get really to thebottom of them. Mali's always springing some new one upon me. I don'tbelieve we shall ever be able to leave the island--we're so hedged roundwith taboos. Even if we were to see a ship to-day, I don't believe they'dallow us to signal it. "

There was a red sunset; a lurid, tropical, red-and-green sunset. It bodedmischief. 

They were passing by some huts at the moment, and over the stockade ofone of them a tree was hanging with small yellow fruits, which Felix knewwell in Fiji as wholesome and agreeable. He broke off a small branch ashe passed; and offered a couple thoughtlessly to Muriel. She took them inher fingers, and tasted them gingerly. "They're not so bad, " she said, taking another from the bough. "They're very much like gooseberries. "

At the same moment, Felix popped one into his own mouth, and swallowed itwithout thinking. 

Almost before they knew what had happened, with the same extraordinaryrapidity as in the case of the wedding, the people in the cottages ranout, with every sign of fear and apprehension, and, seizing the branchfrom Felix's hands, began upbraiding the two Shadows for their wantof attention. 

"We couldn't help it, " Toko exclaimed, with every appearance of guilt andhorror on his face. "They were much too sharp for us. Their hearts areblack. How could we two interfere? These gods are so quick! They hadpicked and eaten them before we ever saw them. "

One of the men raised his hand with a threatening air--but against theShadow, not against the sacred person of Felix. "He will be ill, " hesaid, angrily, pointing toward the white man; "and she will, too. Theirhearts are indeed black. They have sown the seed of the wind. They haveboth of them eaten of it. They will both be ill. You deserve to die! Andwhat will come now to our trees and plantations?"

The crowd gathered round them, cursing low and horribly. The twoterrified Europeans slunk off to their huts, unaware of their exactcrime, and closely followed by a scowling but despondent mob of natives. As they crossed their sacred boundary, Muriel cried, with a suddenoutburst of tears, "Oh, Felix, what on earth shall we ever do to getrid of this terrible, unendurable godship!"

The natives without set up a great shout of horror. "See, see! shecries!" they exclaimed, in indescribable panic. "She has eaten thestorm-fruit, and already she cries! Oh, clouds, restrain yourselves! Oh, great queen, mercy! Whatever will become of us and our poor hutsand gardens!"

And for hours they crouched around, beating their breasts and shrieking. 

That evening, Muriel sat up late in Felix's hut, with Mali by her side, too frightened to go back into her own alone before those angry people. And all the time, just beyond the barrier line, they could hear, abovethe whistle of the wind around the hut, the droning voices of dozens ofnatives, cowering low on the ground; they seemed to be going through somelitany or chant, as if to deprecate the result of this imprudent action. 

"What are they doing outside?" Felix asked of his Shadow at last, after apeculiarly long wail of misery. 

And the Shadow made answer, in very solemn tones, "They are trying topropitiate your mightiness, and to avert the omen, lest the rain shouldfall, and the wind should blow, and the storm-cloud should burst over theisland to destroy them. "

Then Felix remembered suddenly of himself that the season when thisstorm-fruit, or storm-apple, as they called it, was ripe in Fiji, wasalso the season when the great Pacific cyclones most often swept over theland in full fury--storms unexampled on any other sea, like that famousone which wrecked so many European men-of-war a few years since in theharbor of Samoa. 

And without, the wail came louder and clearer still! "If you sow thebread-fruit seed, you will reap the breadfruit. If you sow the wind, youwill reap the whirlwind. They have eaten the storm-fruit. Oh, great king, save us!"

CHAPTER X. 

REAPING THE WHIRLWIND. 

Toward midnight Muriel began to doze lightly from pure fatigue. 

"Put a pillow under her head, and let her sleep, " Felix said in awhisper. "Poor child, it would be cruel to send her alone to-night intoher own quarters. "

And Mali slipped a pillow of mulberry paper under her mistress's head, and laid it on her own lap, and bent down to watch her. 

But outside, beyond the line, the natives murmured loud their discontent. "The Queen of the Clouds stays in the King of the Rain's hut to-night, "they muttered, angrily. "She will not listen to us. Before morning, besure, the Tempest will be born of their meeting to destroy us. "

About two o'clock there came a lull in the wind, which had been risingsteadily ever since that lurid sunset. Felix looked out of the hut door. The moon was full. It was almost as clear as day with the bright tropicalmoonlight, silvery in the open, pale green in the shadow. The people werestill squatting in great rings round the hut, just outside the tabooline, and beating gongs, and sticks and human bones, to keep time to thelilt of their lugubrious litany. 

The air felt unusually heavy and oppressive. Felix raised his eyes to thesky, and saw whisps of light cloud drifting in rapid flight over thescudding moon. Below, an ominous fog bank gathered steadily westward. Then one clap of thunder rent the sky. After it came a deadly silence. The moon was veiled. All was dark as pitch. The natives themselves fellon their faces and prayed with mute lips. Three minutes later, thecyclone had burst upon them in all its frenzy. 

Such a hurricane Felix had never before experienced. Its energy wasawful. Round the palm-trees the wind played a frantic and capriciousdevil's dance. It pirouetted about the atoll in the mad glee ofunconsciousness. Here and there it cleared lanes, hundreds of yards inlength, among the forest-trees and the cocoanut plantations. The noise ofsnapping and falling trunks rang thick on the air. At times the cyclonewould swoop down from above upon the swaying stem of some tall andstately palm that bent like grass before the wind, break it off shortwith a roar at the bottom, and lay it low at once upon the ground, with acrash like thunder. In other places, little playful whirlwinds seemed todescend from the sky in the very midst of the dense brushwood, where theycleared circular patches, strewn thick under foot with trunks andbranches in their titanic sport, and yet left unhurt all about thesurrounding forest. Then again a special cyclone of gigantic proportionswould advance, as it were, in a single column against one stem of aclump, whirl round it spirally like a lightning flash, and, deserting itfor another, leave it still standing, but turned and twisted like a screwby the irresistible force of its invisible fingers. The storm-god, saidToko, was dancing with the palm-trees. The sight was awful. Suchdestructive energy Felix had never even imagined before. No wonder thesavages all round beheld in it the personal wrath of some mighty spirit. 

For in spite of the black clouds they could _see_ it all--both theEuropeans and the islanders. The intense darkness of the night waslighted up for them every minute by an almost incessant blaze of sheetand forked lightning. The roar of the thunder mingled with the roar ofthe tempest, each in turn overtopping and drowning the other. The hutwhere Felix and Muriel sheltered themselves shook before the storm; thevery ground of the island trembled and quivered--like the timbers of agreat ship before a mighty sea--at each onset of the breakers upon thesurrounding fringe-reef. And side by side with it all, to crown theirmisery, wild torrents of rain, descending in waterspouts, as it seemed, or dashed in great sheets against the roof of their frail tenement, poured fitfully on with fierce tropical energy. 

In the midst of the hut Muriel crouched and prayed with bloodless lips toHeaven. This was too, too terrible. It seemed incredible to her that ontop of all they had been called upon to suffer of fear and suspense atthe hands of the savages, the very dumb forces of nature themselvesshould thus be stirred up to open war against them. Her faith inProvidence was sorely tried. Dumb forces, indeed! Why, they roared withmore terrible voices than any wild beast on earth could possibly compass. The thunder and the wind were howling each other down in emulous din, andthe very hiss of the lightning could be distinctly heard, like some hugesnake, at times above the creaking and snapping of the trees before thegale in the surrounding forest. 

Muriel crouched there long, in the mute misery of utter despair. At herfeet Mali crouched too, as frightened as herself, but muttering aloudfrom time to time, in a reproachful voice, "I tell Missy Queenie whatgoing to happen. I warn her not. I tell her she must not eat that verybad storm-apple. But Missy Queenie no listen. Her take her own way, thenstorm come down upon us. "

And Felix's Shadow, in his own tongue, exclaimed more than once in theself-same tone, half terror, half expostulation, "See now what comes frombreaking taboo? You eat the storm-fruit. The storm-fruit suits ill withthe King of the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds. The heavens have brokenloose. The sea has boiled. See what wind and what flood you are bringingupon us. "

By and by, above even the fierce roar of the mingled thunder and cyclone, a wild orgy of noise burst upon them all from without the hut. It was asound as of numberless drums and tom-toms, all beaten in unison with themad energy of fear; a hideous sound, suggestive of some hateful heathendevil-worship. Muriel clapped her hands to her ears in horror. "Oh, what's that?" she cried to Felix, at this new addition to their endlessalarms. "Are the savages out there rising in a body? Have they come tomurder us?"

"Perhaps, " Felix said, smoothing her hair with his hand, as a mothermight soothe her terrified child, "perhaps they're angry with us forhaving caused this storm, as they think, by our foolish action. I believethey all set it down to our having unluckily eaten that unfortunatefruit. I'll go out to the door myself and speak to them. "

Muriel clung to his arm with a passionate clinging. 

"Oh, Felix, " she cried, "no! Don't leave me here alone. My darling, Ilove you. You're all the world there is left to me now, Felix. Don't goout to those wretches and leave me here alone. They'll murder you!they'll murder you! Don't go out, I implore you. If they mean to kill us, let them kill us both together, in one another's arms. Oh, Felix, I amyours, and you are mine, my darling!"

It was the first time either of them had acknowledged the fact; butthere, before the face of that awful convulsion of nature, all the littledeceptions and veils of life seemed rent asunder forever as by a flash oflightning. They stood face to face with each other's souls, and forgotall else in the agony of the moment. Felix clasped the trembling girl inhis arms like a lover. The two Shadows looked on and shook with silentterror. If the King of the Rain thus embraced the Queen of the Cloudsbefore their very eyes, amid so awful a storm, what unspeakable effectsmight not follow at once from it! But they had too much respect for thosesupernatural creatures to attempt to interfere with their action at sucha moment. They accepted their masters almost as passively as theyaccepted the wind and the thunder, which they believed to arise fromthem. 

Felix laid his poor Muriel tenderly down on the mud floor again. "I_must_ go out, my child, " he said. "For the very love of _you_, I mustplay the man, and find out what these savages mean by their drumming. "

He crept to the door of the hut (for no man could walk upright beforethat awful storm), and peered out into the darkness once more, awaitingone of the frequent flashes of lightning. He had not long to wait. In amoment the sky was all ablaze again from end to end, and continued sofor many seconds consecutively. By the light of the continuous zigzagsof fire, Felix could see for himself that hundreds and hundreds ofnatives--men, women, and children, naked, or nearly so, with their hairloose and wet about their cheeks--lay flat on their faces, many coursesdeep, just outside the taboo line. The wind swept over them withextraordinary force, and the tropical rain descended in great floods upontheir bare backs and shoulders. But the savages, as if entranced, seemedto take no heed of all these earthly things. They lay grovelling in themud before some unseen power; and beating their tom-toms in unison, withbarbaric concord, they cried aloud once more as Felix appeared, in aweird litany that overtopped the tumultuous noise of the tempest, "Oh, Storm-God, hear us! Oh, great spirit, deliver us! King of the Rain andQueen of the Clouds, befriend us! Be angry no more! Hide your wrath fromyour people! Take away your hurricane, and we will bring you many gifts. Eat no longer of the storm-apple--the seed of the wind--and we will feedyou with yam and turtle, and much choice bread-fruit. Great king, we areyours; you shall choose which you will of our children for your meat anddrink; you shall sup on our blood. But take your storm away; do notutterly drown and submerge our island!"

As they spoke they crawled nearer and nearer, with gliding serpentinemotion, till their heads almost touched the white line of coral. But nota man of them all went one inch beyond it. They stopped there and gazedat him. Felix signed to them with his hand, and pointed vaguely to thesky, as much as to say _he_ was not responsible. At the gesture the wholeassembly burst into one loud shout of gratitude. "He has heard us, he hasheard us!" they exclaimed, with a perfect wail of joy. "He will notutterly destroy us. He will take away his storm. He will bring the sunand the moon back to us. "

Felix returned into the hut, somewhat reassured so far as the attitude ofthe savages went. "Don't be afraid of them, Muriel, " he cried, taking herpassionately once more in a tender embrace. "They daren't cross thetaboo. They won't come near; they're too frightened themselves to dreamof hurting us. "

CHAPTER XI. 

AFTER THE STORM. 

Next morning the day broke bright and calm, as if the tempest had beenbut an evil dream of the night, now past forever. The birds sang loud;the lizards came forth from their holes in the wall, and basked, greenand gold, in the warm, dry sunshine. But though the sky overhead was blueand the air clear, as usually happen after these alarming tropicalcyclones and rainstorms, the memorials of the great wind that had ragedall night long among the forests of the island were neither few nor farbetween. Everywhere the ground was strewn with leaves and branches andhuge stems of cocoa-palms. All nature was draggled. Many of the treeswere stripped clean of their foliage, as completely as oaks in an Englishwinter; on others, big strands of twisted fibres marked the scars andjoints where mighty boughs had been torn away by main force; while, elsewhere, bare stumps alone remained to mark the former presence of somenoble dracæna or some gigantic banyan. Bread-fruits and cocoanuts laytossed in the wildest confusion on the ground; the banana andplantain-patches were beaten level with the soil or buried deep in themud; many of the huts had given way entirely; abundant wreckage strewedevery corner of the island. It was an awful sight. Muriel shuddered toherself to see how much the two that night had passed through. 

What the outer fringing reef had suffered from the storm they hardly knewas yet; but from the door of the hut Felix could see for himself how eventhe calm waters of the inner lagoon had been lashed into wild fury by thefierce swoop of the tempest. Round the entire atoll the solidconglomerate coral floor was scooped under, broken up, chewed fine by thewaves, or thrown in vast fragments on the beach of the island. By theeastern shore, in particular, just opposite their hut, Felix observed aregular wall of many feet in height, piled up by the waves like thefamiliar Chesil Beach near his old home in Dorsetshire. It was theshelter of that temporary barrier alone, no doubt, that had preservedtheir huts last night from the full fury of the gale, and that hadallowed the natives to congregate in such numbers prone on their faces inthe mud and rain, upon the unconsecrated ground outside their taboo-line. 

But now not an islander was to be seen within ear-shot. All had gone awayto look after their ruined huts or their beaten-down plantain-patches, leaving the cruel gods, who, as they thought, had wrought all themischief out of pure wantonness, to repent at leisure the harm doneduring the night to their obedient votaries. 

Felix was just about to cross the taboo-line and walk down to the shoreto examine the barrier, when Toko, his Shadow, laying his hand on hisshoulder with more genuine interest and affection than he had ever yetshown, exclaimed, with some horror, "Oh, no! Not that! Don't dare to gooutside! It would be very dangerous for you. If my people were to catchyou on profane soil just now, there's no saying what harm they might doto you. "

"Why so?" Felix exclaimed, in surprise. "Last night, surely, they wereall prayers and promises and vows and entreaties. "

The young man nodded his head in acquiescence. "Ah, yes; last night, " heanswered. "That was very well then. Vows were sore needed. The storm wasraging, and you were within your taboo. How could they dare to touch you, a mighty god of the tempest, at the very moment when you were rendingtheir banyan-trees and snapping their cocoanut stems with your mightyarms like so many little chicken-bones? Even Tu-Kila-Kila himself, Iexpect, the very high god, lay frightened in his temple, cowering by histree, annoyed at your wrath; he sent Fire and Water among theworshippers, no doubt, to offer up vows and to appease your anger. "

Then Felix remembered, as his Shadow spoke, that, as a matter of fact, hehad observed the men who usually wore the red and white feather cloaksamong the motley crowd of grovelling natives who lay flat on their facesin the mud of the cleared space the night before, and prayed hard formercy. Only they were not wearing their robes of office at the moment, inaccordance with a well-known savage custom; they had come naked and indisgrace, as befits all suppliants. They had left behind them theinsignia of their rank in their own shaken huts, and bowed down theirbare backs to the rain and the lightning. 

"Yes, I saw them among the other islanders, " Felix answered, half-smiling, but prudently remaining within the taboo-line, as hisShadow advised him. 

Toko kept his hand still on his master's shoulder. "Oh, king, " he said, beseechingly, and with great solemnity, "I am doing wrong to warn you; Iam breaking a very great Taboo. I don't know what harm may come to me fortelling you. Perhaps Tu-Kila-Kila will burn me to ashes with one glanceof his eyes. He may know this minute what I'm saying here alone to you. "

It is hard for a white man to meet scruples like this; but Felix was boldenough to answer outright: "Tu-Kila-Kila knows nothing of the sort, andcan never find out. Take my word for it, Toko, nothing that you say to mewill ever reach Tu-Kila-Kila. "

The Shadow looked at him doubtfully, and trembled as he spoke. "I likeyou, Korong, " he said, with a genuinely truthful ring in his voice. "Youseem to me so kind and good--so different from other gods, who are verycruel. You never beat me. Nobody I ever served treated me as well or askindly as you have done. And for _your_ sake I will even dare to breaktaboo--if you're quite, quite sure Tu-Kila-Kila will never discover it. "

"I'm quite sure, " Felix answered, with perfect confidence. "I know it forcertain. I swear a great oath to it. "

"You swear by Tu-Kila-Kila himself?" the young savage asked, anxiously. 

"I swear by Tu-Kila-Kila himself, " Felix replied at once. "I swear, without doubt. He can never know it. "

"That is a great Taboo, " the Shadow went on, meditatively, strokingFelix's arm. "A very great Taboo indeed. A terrible medicine. And youare a god; I can trust you. Well, then, you see, the secret is this:you are Korong, but you are a stranger, and you don't understand theways of Boupari. If for three days after the end of this storm, whichTu-Kila-Kila has sent Fire and Water to pray and vow against, you or theQueen of the Clouds show yourselves outside your own taboo-line--why, then, the people are clear of sin; whoever takes you may rend you alive;they will tear you limb from limb and cut you into pieces. "

"Why so?" Felix asked, aghast at this discovery. They seemed to live on aperpetual volcano in this wonderful island; and a volcano ever breakingout in fresh places. They could never get to the bottom of its horriblesuperstitions. 

"Because you ate the storm-apple, " the Shadow answered, confidently. "That was very wrong. You brought the tempest upon us yourselves by yourown trespass; therefore, by the custom of Boupari, which we learn in themysteries, you become full Korong for the sacrifice at once. That makesthe term for you. The people will give you all your dues; then they willsay, 'We are free; we have bought you with a price; we have brought yourcocoanuts. No sin attaches to us; we are righteous; we are righteous. 'And then they will kill you, and Fire and Water will roast you and boilyou. "

"But only if we go outside the taboo-line?" Felix asked, anxiously. 

"Only if you go outside the taboo-line, " the Shadow replied, nodding ahasty assent. "Inside it, till your term comes, even Tu-Kila-Kilahimself, the very high god, whose meat we all are, dare never hurt you. "

"Till our term comes?" Felix inquired, once more astonished andperplexed. "What do you mean by that, my Shadow?"

But the Shadow was either bound by some superstitious fear, or elseincapable of putting himself into Felix's point of view. "Why, till youare full Korong, " he answered, like one who speaks of some familiar fact, as who should say, till you are forty years old, or, till your beardgrows white. "Of course, by and by, you will be full Korong. I cannothelp you then; but, till that time comes, I would like to do my best byyou. You have been very kind to me. I tell you much. More than this, it would not be lawful for me to mention. "

And that was the most that, by dexterous questioning, Felix could evermanage to get out of his mysterious Shadow. 

"At the end of three days we will be safe, though?" he inquired at last, after all other questions failed to produce an answer. 

"Oh, yes, at the end of three days the storm will have blown over, " theyoung man answered, easily. "All will then be well. You may venture outonce more. The rain will have dried over all the island. Fire and Waterwill have no more power over you. "

Felix went back to the hut to inform Muriel of this new peril thussuddenly sprung upon them. Poor Muriel, now almost worn out with endlessterrors, received it calmly. "I'm growing accustomed to it all, Felix, "she answered, resignedly. "If only I know that you will keep yourpromise, and never let me fall alive into these wretches' hands, I shallfeel quite safe. Oh, Felix, do you know when you took me in your armslike that last night, in spite of everything, I felt positively happy. "

About ten o'clock they were suddenly roused by a sound of many natives, coming in quick succession, single file, to the huts, and shouting aloud, "Oh, King of the Rain, oh, Queen of the Clouds, come forth for our vows!Receive your presents!"

Felix went forth to the door to look. With a warning look in his eyes, his Shadow followed him. The natives were now coming up by dozens at atime, bringing with them, in great arm-loads, fallen cocoanuts andbreadfruits, and branches of bananas, and large draggled clusters ofhalf-ripe plantains. 

"Why, what are all these?" Felix exclaimed in surprise. 

His Shadow looked up at him, as if amused at the absurd simplicity of thequestion. "These are yours, of course, " he said; "yours and the Queen's;they are the windfalls you made. Did you not knock them all off the treesfor yourselves when you were coming down in such sheets from the sky lastevening?"

Felix wrung his hands in positive despair. It was clear, indeed, that tothe minds of the natives there was no distinguishing personally betweenhimself and Muriel, and the rain or the cyclone. 

"Will they bring them all in?" he asked, gazing in alarm at the huge pileof fruits the natives were making outside the huts. 

"Yes, all, " the Shadow answered; "they are vows; they are godsends; butif you like, you can give some of them back. If you give much back, ofcourse it will make my people less angry with you. "

Felix advanced near the line, holding his hand up before him to commandsilence. As he did so, he was absolutely appalled himself at the perfectstorm of execration and abuse which his appearance excited. The foremostnatives, brandishing their clubs and stone-tipped spears, or shakingtheir fists by the line, poured forth upon his devoted head at once allthe most frightful curses of the Polynesian vocabulary. "Oh, evil god, "they cried aloud with angry faces, "oh, wicked spirit! you have a badheart. See what a wrong you have purposely done us. If your heart werenot bad, would you treat us like this? If you are indeed a god, come outacross the line, and let us try issues together. Don't skulk like acoward in your hut and within your taboo, but come out and fight us. _We_are not afraid, who are only men. Why are _you_ afraid of us?"

Felix tried to speak once more, but the din drowned his voice. As hepaused, the people set up their loud shouts again. "Oh, you wicked god!You eat the storm-apple! You have wrought us much harm. You have spoiledour harvest. How you came down in great sheets last night! It waspitiful, pitiful! We would like to kill you. You might have taken ourbread-fruits and our bananas, if you would; we give you them freely; theyare yours; here, take them. We feed you well; we make you many offerings. But why did you wish to have our huts also? Why did you beat down ouryoung plantations and break our canoes against the beach of the island?That shows a bad heart! You are an evil god! You dare not defendyourself. Come out and meet us. "

CHAPTER XII. 

A POINT OF THEOLOGY. 

At last, with great difficulty, Felix managed to secure a certainmomentary lull of silence. The natives, clustering round the line tillthey almost touched it, listened with scowling brows, and brandishedthreatening spears, tipped with points of stone or shark's teeth orturtle-bone, while he made his speech to them. From time to time, one oranother interrupted him, coaxing and wheedling him, as it were, to crossthe line; but Felix never heeded them. He was beginning to understand nowhow to treat this strange people. He took no notice of their threats ortheir entreaties either. 

By and by, partly by words and partly by gestures, he made themunderstand that they might take back and keep for themselves all thecocoanuts and bread-fruits they had brought as windfalls. At this thepeople seemed a little appeased. "His heart is not quite so bad as wethought, " they murmured among themselves; "but if he didn't want them, what did he mean? Why did he beat down our huts and our plantations?"

Then Felix tried to explain to them--a somewhat dangerous task--thatneither he nor Muriel were really responsible for last night's storm; butat that the people, with one accord, raised a great loud shout of unmixedderision. "He is a god, " they cried, "and yet he is ashamed of his ownacts and deeds, afraid of what we, mere men, will do to him! Ha! ha! Takecare! These are lies that he tells. Listen to him! Hear him!"

Meanwhile, more and more natives kept coming up with windfalls of fruit, or with objects they had vowed in their terror to dedicate during thenight; and Felix all the time kept explaining at the top of his voice, toall as they came, that he wanted nothing, and that they could take allback again. This curiously inconsistent action seemed to puzzle thewondering natives strangely. Had he made the storm, then, they asked, andeaten the storm-apple, for no use to himself, but out of pureperverseness? If he didn't even want the windfalls and the objects vowedto him, why had he beaten down their crops and broken their houses? Theylooked at him meaningly; but they dared not cross that great line oftaboo. It was their own superstition alone, in that moment of danger, that kept their hands off those defenceless white people. 

At last a happy idea seemed to strike the crowd. "What he wants is achild?" they cried, effusively. "He thirsts for blood! Let us kill androast him a proper victim!"

Felix's horror at this appalling proposition knew no bounds. "If you do, "he cried, turning their own superstition against them in this last hourof need, "I will raise up a storm worse even than last night's! You do itat your peril! I want no victim. The people of my country eat not ofhuman flesh. It is a thing detestable, horrible, hateful to God and man. With us, all human life alike is sacred. We spill no blood. If you dareto do as you say, I will raise such a storm over your heads to-night aswill submerge and drown the whole of your island. "

The natives listened to him with profound interest. "We must spill noblood!" they repeated, looking aghast at one another. "Hear what the Kingsays! We must not cut the victim's throat. We must bind a child withcords and roast it alive for him!"

Felix hardly knew what to do or say at this atrocious proposal. "If youroast it alive, " he cried, "you deserve to be all scorched up withlightning. Take care what you do! Spare the child's life! I will have novictim. Beware how you anger me!"

But the savage no sooner says than he does. With him deliberation isunknown, and impulse everything. In a moment the natives had gathered ina circle a little way off, and began drawing lots. Several children, seized hurriedly up among the crowd, were huddled like so many sheep inthe centre. Felix looked on from his enclosure, half petrified withhorror. The lot fell upon a pretty little girl of five years old. Withoutone word of warning, without one sign of remorse, before Felix's veryeyes, they began to bind the struggling and terrified child just outsidethe circle. 

The white man could stand this horrid barbarity no longer. At the risk ofhis life--at the risk of Muriel's--he must rush out to prevent them. Theyshould never dare to kill that helpless child before his very eyes. Comewhat might--though even Muriel should suffer for it--he felt he _must_rescue that trembling little creature. Drawing his trusty knife, andopening the big blade ostentatiously before their eyes, he made a suddendart like a wild beast across the line, and pounced down upon the partythat guarded the victim. 

Was it a ruse to make him cross the line, alone, or did they really meanit? He hardly knew; but he had no time to debate the abstract question. Bursting into their midst, he seized the child with a rush in hiscircling arms, and tried to hurry back with it within the protectingtaboo-line. 

Quick as lightning he was surrounded and almost cut down by a furious andfrantic mob of half-naked savages. "Kill him! Tear him to pieces!" theycried in their rage. "He has a bad heart! He destroyed our huts! He brokedown our plantations! Kill him, kill him, kill him!"

As they closed in upon him, with spears and tomahawks and clubs, Felixsaw he had nothing left for it now but a hard fight for life to return tothe taboo-line. Holding the child in one arm, and striking wildly outwith his knife with the other, he tried to hack his way back by mainforce to the shelter of the taboo-line in frantic lunges. The distancewas but a few feet, but the savages pressed round him, half frightenedstill, yet gnashing their teeth and distorting their faces with anger. "He has broken the Taboo, " they cried in vehement tones. "He has crossedthe line willingly. Kill him! Kill him! We are free from sin. We havebought him with a price--with many cocoanuts!"

At the sound of the struggle going on so close outside, Muriel rushed infrantic haste and terror from the hut. Her face was pale, but herdemeanor was resolute. Before Mali could stop her, she, too, had crossedthe sacred line of the coral mark, and had flung herself madly uponFelix's assailants, to cover his retreat with her own frail body. 

"Hold off!" she cried, in her horror, in English, but in accents eventhose savages could read. "You shall not touch him!"

With a fierce effort Felix tore his way back, through the spears andclubs, toward the place of safety. The savages wounded him on the waymore than once with their jagged stone spear-tips, and blood flowed fromhis breast and arms in profusion. But they didn't dare even so to touchMuriel. The sight of that pure white woman, rushing out in her weaknessto protect her lover's life from attack, seemed to strike them with somefresh access of superstitious awe. One or two of themselves were woundedby Felix's knife, for they were unaccustomed to steel, though they had afew blades made out of old European barrel-hoops. For a minute or two theconflict was sharp and hotly contested. Then at last Felix managed tofling the child across the line, to push Muriel with one hand atarm's-length before him, and to rush himself within the sacred circle. 

No sooner had he crossed it than the savages drew up around, undecided asyet, but in a threatening body. Rank behind rank, their loose hair intheir eyes, they stood like wild beasts balked of their prey, and yelledat him. Some of them brandished their spears and their stone hatchetsangrily in their victims' faces. Others contented themselves with howlingaloud as before, and piling curses afresh on the heads of the unpopularstorm-gods. "Look at her, " they cried, in their wrath, pointing theirskinny brown fingers angrily at Muriel. "See, she weeps even now. Shewould flood us with her rain. She isn't satisfied with all the harm shehas poured down upon Boupari already. She wants to drown us. "

And then a little knot drew up close to the line of taboo itself, andbegan to discuss in loud and serious tones a pressing question of savagetheology and religious practice. 

"They have crossed the line within the three days, " some of the foremostwarriors exclaimed, in excited voices. "They are no longer taboo. We cando as we please with them. We may cross the line now ourselves if wewill, and tear them to pieces. Come on! Who follows? Korong! Korong! Letus rend them! Let us eat them!"

But though they spoke so bravely they hung back themselves, fearfulof passing that mysterious barrier. Others of the crowd answered themback, warmly: "No, no; not so. Be careful what you do. Anger not thegods. Don't ruin Boupari. If the Taboo is not indeed broken, then howdare we break it? They are gods. Fear their vengeance. They are, indeed, terrible. See what happened to us when they merely ate of thestorm-apple! What might not happen if we were to break taboo without duecause and kill them?"

One old, gray-bearded warrior, in particular, held his countrymen back. "Mind how you trifle with gods, " the old chief said, in a tone of solemnwarning. "Mind how you provoke them. They are very mighty. When I wasyoung, our people killed three sailing gods who came ashore in a smallcanoe, built of thin split logs; and within a month an awful earthquakedevastated Boupari, and fire burst forth from a mouth in the ground, andthe people knew that the spirits of the sailing gods were very angry. Wait, therefore, till Tu-Kila-Kila himself comes, and then ask of him, and of Fire and Water. As Tu-Kila-Kila bids you, that do you do. Is henot our great god, the king of us all, and the guardian of the customs ofthe island of Boupari?"

"Is Tu-Kila-Kila coming?" some of the warriors asked, with bated breath. 

"How should he not come?" the old chief asked, drawing himself up veryerect. "Know you not the mysteries? The rain has put out all the fires inBoupari. The King of Fire himself, even his hearth is cold. He tried hisbest in the storm to keep his sacred embers still smouldering; but theKing of the Rain was stronger than he was, and put it out at last inspite of his endeavors. Be careful, therefore, how you deal with the Kingof the Rain, who comes down among lightnings, and is so very powerful. "

"And Tu-Kila-Kila comes to fetch fresh fire?" one of the nearest savagesasked, with profound awe. 

"He comes to fetch fresh fire, new fire from the sun, " the old mananswered, with awe in his voice. "These foreign gods, are they notstrangers from the sun? They have brought the divine seeds of fire, growing in a shining box that reflects the sunlight. They need norubbing-sticks and no drill to kindle fresh flame. They touch the seedon the box, and, lo, like a miracle, fire bursts forth from the woodspontaneous. Tu-Kila-Kila comes, to behold this miracle. "

The warriors hung back with doubtful eyes for a moment. Then they spokewith one accord, "Tu-Kila-Kila shall decide. Tu-Kila-Kila! Tu-Kila-Kila!If the great god says the Taboo holds good, we will not hurt or offendthe strangers. But if the great god says the Taboo is broken, and we areall without sin--then, Korong! Korong! we will kill them! We will eatthem!"

As the two parties thus stood glaring at one another, across that narrowimaginary wall, another cry went up to heaven at the distant sound of apeculiar tom-tom. "Tu-Kila-Kila comes!" they shouted. "Our great godapproaches! Women, begone! Men, hide your eyes! Fly, fly from thebrightness of his face, which is as the sun in glory! Tu-Kila-Kila comes!Fly far, all profane ones!"

And in a moment the women had disappeared into space, and the men layflat on the moist ground with low groans of surprise, and hid their facesin their hands in abject terror. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

AS BETWEEN GODS. 

Tu-Kila-Kila came up in his grandest panoply. The great umbrella, withthe hanging cords, rose high over his head; the King of Fire and the Kingof Water, in their robes of state, marched slowly by his side; a wholegroup of slaves and temple attendants, clapping hands in unison, followedobedient at his sacred heels. But as soon as he reached the open space infront of the huts and began to speak, Felix could easily see, in spite ofhis own agitation and the excitement of the moment, that the implacablegod himself was profoundly frightened. Last night's storm had, indeed, been terrible; but Tu-Kila-Kila mentally coupled it with Felix's attitudetoward himself at their last interview, and really believed in his ownheart he had met, after all, with a stronger god, more powerful thanhimself, who could make the clouds burst forth in fire and the earthtremble. The savage swaggered a good deal, to be sure, as is often thefashion with savages when frightened; but Felix could see between thelines, that he swaggered only on the familiar principle of whistling tokeep your courage up, and that in his heart of hearts he was mostunspeakably terrified. 

"You did not do well, O King of the Rain, last night, " he said, after aninterchange of civilities, as becomes great gods. "You have put out eventhe sacred flame on the holy hearth of the King of Fire. You have a badheart. Why do you use us so?"

"Why do you let your people offer human sacrifices?" Felix answered, boldly, taking advantage of his position. "They are hateful in our sight, these cannibal ways. While we remain on the island, no human life shallbe unjustly taken. Do you understand me?"

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back, and gazed around him suspiciously. In all hisexperience no one had ever dared to address him like that. Assuredly, thestranger from the sun must be a very great god--how great, he hardlydared to himself to realize. He shrugged his shoulders. "When we mightydeities of the first order speak together, face to face, " he said, withan uneasy air, "it is not well that the mere common herd of men shouldoverhear our profound deliberations. Let us go inside your hut. Let usconfer in private. "

They entered the hut alone, Muriel still clinging to Felix's arm, inspeechless terror. Then Felix at once began to explain the situation. Ashe spoke, a baleful light gleamed in Tu-Kila-Kila's eye. The great godremoved his mulberry-paper mask. He was evidently delighted at the turnthings had taken. If only he dared--but there; he dared not. "Fire andWater would never allow it, " he murmured softly to himself. "They knowthe taboos as well as I do. " It was clear to Felix that the savage wouldgladly have sacrificed him if he dared, and that he made no bones aboutletting him know it; but the custom of the islanders bound him as tightlyas it bound themselves, and he was afraid to transgress it. 

"Now listen, " Felix said, at last, after a long palaver, looking in thesavage's face with a resolute air: "Tu-Kila-Kila, we are not afraid ofyou. We are not afraid of all your people. I went out alone just now torescue that child, and, as you see, I succeeded in rescuing it. Yourpeople have wounded me--look at the blood on my arms and chest--but Idon't mind for wounds. I mean you to do as I say, and to make your peopledo so, too. Understand, the nation to which I belong is very powerful. You have heard of the sailing gods who go over the sea in canoes of fire, as swift as the wind, and whose weapons are hollow tubes, that belchforth great bolts of lightning and thunder? Very well, I am one of them. If ever you harm a hair of our heads, those sailing gods will before longsend one of their mighty fire-canoes, and bring to bear upon your islandtheir thunder and lightning, and destroy your huts, and punish you forthe wrong you have ventured to do us. So now you know. Remember that youact exactly as I tell you. "

Tu-Kila-Kila was evidently overawed by the white man's resolute voice andmanner. He had heard before of the sailing gods (as the Polynesians ofthe old school still call the Europeans); and though but one or two strayindividuals among them had ever reached his remote island (mostly ascastaways), he was quite well enough acquainted with their might andpower to be deeply impressed by Felix's exhortation. So he tried totemporize. "Very well, " he made answer, with his jauntiest air, assuminga tone of friendly good-fellowship toward his brother-god. "I will bearit in mind. I will try to humor you. While your time lasts, no man shallhurt you. But if I promise you that, you must do a good turn for meinstead. You must come out before the people and give me a new fire fromthe sun, that you carry in a shining box about with you. The King of Firehas allowed his sacred flame to go out in deference to your flood; forlast night, you know, you came down heavily. Never in my life have Iknown you come down heavier. The King of Fire acknowledges himselfbeaten. So give us light now before the people, that they may know we aregods, and may fear to disobey us. "

"Only on one condition, " Felix answered, sternly; for he felt he hadTu-Kila-Kila more or less in his power now, and that he could drive abargain with him. Why, he wasn't sure; but he saw Tu-Kila-Kila attached aprofound importance to having the sacred fire relighted, as he thought, direct from heaven. 

"What condition is that?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked, glancing about himsuspiciously. 

"Why, that you give up in future human sacrifices. "

Tu-Kila-Kila gave a start. Then he reflected for a moment. Evidently, thecondition seemed to him a very hard one. "Do you want all the victims foryourself and her, then?" he asked, with a casual nod aside toward Muriel. 

Felix drew back, with horror depicted on every line of his face. "Heavenforbid!" he answered, fervently. "We want no bloodshed, no human victims. We ask you to give up these horrid practices, because they shock andrevolt us. If you would have your fire lighted, you must promise us toput down cannibalism altogether henceforth in your island. "

Tu-Kila-Kila hesitated. After all, it was only for a very short time thatthese strangers could thus beard him. Their day would come soon. Theywere but Korongs. Meanwhile, it was best, no doubt, to effect acompromise. "Agreed, " he answered, slowly. "I will put down humansacrifices--so long as you live among us. And I will tell the people yourtaboo is not broken. All shall be done as you will in this matter. Now, come out before the crowd and light the fire from Heaven. "

"Remember, " Felix repeated, "if you break your word, my people will comedown upon you, sooner or later, in their mighty fire-canoes, and willtake vengeance for your crime, and destroy you utterly. "

Tu-Kila-Kila smiled a cunning smile. "I know all that, " he answered. "Iam a god myself, not a fool, don't you see? You are a very great god, too; but I am the greater. No more of words between us two. It is asbetween gods. The fire! the fire!"

Tu-Kila-Kila replaced his mask. They proceeded from the hut to the openspace within the taboo-line. The people still lay all flat on theirfaces. "Fire and Water, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, in a commanding tone, "comeforward and screen me!"

The King of Fire and the King of Water unrolled a large square of nativecloth, which they held up as a screen on two poles in front of theirsuperior deity. Tu-Kila-Kila sat down on the ground, hugging his knees, in the common squatting savage fashion, behind the veil thus readilyformed for him. "Taboo is removed, " he said, in loud, clear tones. "Mypeople may rise. The light will not burn them. They may look toward theplace where Tu-Kila-Kila's face is hidden from them. "

The people all rose with one accord, and gazed straight before them. 

"The King of Fire will bring dry sticks, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, in hisaccustomed regal manner. 

The King of Fire, sticking one pole of the screen into the groundsecurely, brought forward a bundle of sun-dried sticks and leaves from abasket beside him. 

"The King of the Rain, who has put out all our hearths with his floodlast night, will relight them again with new fire, fresh flame from thesun, rays of our disk, divine, mystic, wonderful, " Tu-Kila-Kilaproclaimed, in his droning monotone. 

Felix advanced as he spoke to the pile, and struck a match before theeyes of all the islanders. As they saw it light, and then set fire to thewood, a loud cry went up once more, "Tu-Kila-Kila is great! His words aretrue! He has brought fire from the sun! His ways are wonderful!"

Tu-Kila-Kila, from his point of vantage behind the curtain, strove toimprove the occasion with a theological lesson. "That is the way we havelearned from our divine ancestors, " he said, slowly; "the rule of thegods in our island of Boupari. Each god, as he grows old, reincarnateshimself visibly. Before he can grow feeble and die he immolates himselfwillingly on his own altar; and a younger and a stronger than he receiveshis spirit. Thus the gods are always young and always with you. Beholdmyself, Tu-Kila-Kila! Am I not from old times? Am I not very ancient?Have I not passed through many bodies? Do I not spring ever fresh from myown ashes? Do I not eat perpetually the flesh of new victims? Even sowith fire. The flames of our island were becoming impure. The King ofFire saw his cinders flickering. So I gave my word. The King of the Raindescended in floods upon them. He put them all out. And now he rekindlesthem. They burn up brighter and fresher than ever. They burn to cook mymeat, the limbs of my victims. Take heed that you do the King of the Rainno harm as long as he remains within his sacred circle. He is a verygreat god. He is fierce; he is cruel. His taboo is not broken. Beware!Beware! Disobey at your peril. I, Tu-Kila-Kila, have spoken. "

As he spoke, it seemed to Felix that these strange mystic words abouteach god springing fresh from his own ashes must contain the solution ofthat dread problem they were trying in vain to read. That, perhaps, wasthe secret of Korong. If only they could ever manage to understand it!

Tu-Kila-Kila beat his tom-tom twice. In a second all the people fell flaton their faces again. Tu-Kila-Kila rose; the kings of Fire and Water heldthe umbrella over him. The attendants on either side clapped hands intime to the sacred tom-tom. With proud, slow tread, the god retraced hissteps to his own palace-temple; and Muriel and Felix were left alone atlast in their dusty enclosure. 

"Tu-Kila-Kila hates me, " Felix said, later in the day, to his attentiveShadow. 

"Of course, " the young man answered, with a tone of natural assent. "Tobe sure he hates you. How could he do otherwise? You are Korong. You mayany day be his enemy. "

"But he's afraid of me, too, " Felix went on. "He would have liked to letthe people tear me in pieces. Yet he dared not risk it. He seems to dreadoffending me. "

"Of course, " the Shadow replied, as readily as before. "He is very muchafraid of you. You are Korong. You may any day supplant him. He wouldlike to get rid of you, if he could see his way. But till your time comeshe dare not touch you. "

"When will my time come?" Felix asked, with that dim apprehension of somehorrible end coming over him yet again in all its vague weirdness. 

The Shadow shook his head. "That, " he answered, "it is not lawful for meso much as to mention. I tell you too far. You will know soon enough. Wait, and be patient. "

CHAPTER XIV. 

"MR. THURSTAN, I PRESUME. "

Naturally enough, it was some time before Felix and Muriel could recoverfrom the shock of their deadly peril. Yet, strange to say, the natives atthe end of three days seemed positively to have forgotten all about it. Their loves and their hates were as shortlived as children's. As soon asthe period of seclusion was over, their attentions to the two strangersredoubled in intensity. They were evidently most anxious, after thisbrief disagreement, to reassure the new gods, who came from the sun, oftheir gratitude and devotion. The men who had wounded Felix, inparticular, now came daily in the morning with exceptional gifts of fish, fruit, and flowers; they would bring a crab from the sea, or a joint ofturtle-meat. "Forgive us, O king, " they cried, prostrating themselveshumbly. "We did not mean to hurt you; we thought your time had reallycome. You are a Korong. We would not offend you. Do not refuse us yourshowers because of our sin. We are very penitent. We will do what you askof us. Your look is poison. See, here is wood; here are leaves and fire;we are but your meat; choose and cook which you will of us!"

It was useless Felix's trying to explain to them that he wanted novictims, and no propitiation. The more he protested, the more theybrought gifts. "He is a very great god, " they exclaimed. "He wantsnothing from us. What can we give him that will be an acceptable gift?Shall we offer him ourselves, our wives, our children?"

As for the women, when they saw how thoroughly frightened of them Murielnow was, they couldn't find means to express their regret and devotion. Mothers brought their little children, whom she had patted on the head, and offered them, just outside the line, as presents for her acceptance. They explained to her Shadow that they never meant to hurt her, and that, if only she would venture without the line, as of old, all should bewell, and they would love and adore her. Mali translated to her mistressthese speeches and prayers. "Them say, 'You come back, Queenie, '" sheexplained in her broken Queensland English. "'Boupari women love you verymuch. Boupari women glad you come. You kind; you beautiful! All Bouparimen and women very much pleased with you and the gentleman, because yougive back him cocoanut and fruit that you pick in the storm, and becauseyou bring down fresh fire from heaven. '"

Gradually, after several days, Felix's confidence was so far restoredthat he ventured to stroll beyond the line again; and he found himself, indeed, most popular among the people. In various ways he picked upgradually the idea that the islanders generally disliked Tu-Kila-Kila, and liked himself; and that they somehow regarded him as Tu-Kila-Kila'snatural enemy. What it could all mean he did not yet understand, thoughsome inklings of an explanation occasionally occurred to him. Oh, how helonged now for the Month of Birds to end, in order that he might pay hislong-deferred visit to the mysterious Frenchman, from whose voice hisShadow had fled on that fateful evening with such sudden precipitancy. The Frenchman, he judged, must have been long on the island, and couldprobably give him some satisfactory solution of this abstruse problem. 

So he was glad, indeed, when one evening, some weeks later, his Shadow, observing the sky narrowly, remarked to him in a low voice, "New moonto-morrow! The Month of Birds will then be up. In the morning you can goand see your brother god at the Abode of Birds without breaking taboo. The Month of Turtles begins at sunrise. My family god is a turtle, so Iknow the day for it. "

So great was Felix's impatience to settle this question, that almostbefore the sun was up next day he had set forth from his hut, accompaniedas usual by his faithful Shadow. Their way lay past Tu-Kila-Kila'stemple. As they went by the entrance with the bamboo posts, Felixhappened to glance aside through the gate to the sacred enclosure. Earlyas it was, Tu-Kila-Kila was afoot already; and, to Felix's greatsurprise, was pacing up and down, with that stealthy, wary look upon hiscunning face that Muriel had so particularly noted on the day of theirfirst arrival. His spear stood in his hand, and his tomahawk hung by hisleft side; he peered about him suspiciously, with a cautious glance, ashe walked round and round the sacred tree he guarded so continually. There was something weird and awful in the sight of that savage god, thuscondemned by his own superstition and the custom of his people to trampceaselessly up and down before the sacred banyan. 

At sight of Felix, however, a sudden burst of frenzy seemed to possess atonce all Tu-Kila-Kila's limbs. He brandished his spear violently, and sethimself spasmodically in a posture of defence. His brow grew black, andhis eyes darted out eternal hate and suspicion. It was evident heexpected an instant attack, and was prepared with all his might and mainto resist aggression. Yet he never offered to desert his post by the treeor to assume the offensive. Clearly, he was guarding the sacred groveitself with jealous care, and was as eager for its safety as for his ownlife and honor. 

Felix passed on, wondering what it all could mean, and turned with aninquiring glance to his trembling Shadow. As for Toko, he had held hisface averted meanwhile, lest he should behold the great god, and bescorched to a cinder; but in answer to Felix's mute inquiry he murmuredlow: "Was Tu-Kila-Kila there? Were all things right? Was he on guard athis post by the tree already?"

"Yes, " Felix replied, with that weird sense of mystery creeping over himnow more profoundly than ever. "He was on guard by the tree and he lookedat me angrily. "

"Ah, " the Shadow remarked, with a sigh of regret, "he keeps watch well. It will be hard work to assail him. No god in Boupari ever held his placeso tight. Who wishes to take Tu-Kila-Kila's divinity must get up early. "

They went on in silence to the little volcanic knoll near the centre ofthe island. There, in the neat garden plot they had observed before, aman, in the last relics of a very tattered European costume, much coveredwith a short cape of native cloth, was tending his flowers and singing tohimself merrily. His back was turned to them as they came up. Felixpaused a moment, unseen, and caught the words the stranger was singing:

"Très jolie, Peu polie, Possédant un gros magot; Fort en gueule, Pas bégueule; Telle était--"

The stranger looked up, and paused in the midst of his lines, open-mouthed. For a moment he stood and stared astonished. Then, raisinghis native cap with a graceful air, and bowing low, as he would havebowed to a lady on the Boulevard, he advanced to greet a brother Europeanwith the familiar words, in good educated French, "Monsieur, I saluteyou!"

To Felix, the sound of a civilized voice in the midst of so much strangeand primitive barbarism, was like a sudden return to some forgottenworld, so deeply and profoundly did it move and impress him. He graspedthe sunburnt Frenchman's rugged hand in his. "Who are you?" he cried, inthe very best Parisian he could muster up on the spur of the moment. "Andhow did you come here?"

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, no less profoundly moved thanhimself, "this is, indeed, wonderful! Do I hear once more that beautifullanguage spoken? Do I find myself once more in the presence of acivilized person? What fortune! What happiness! Ah, it is glorious, glorious. "

For some seconds they stood and looked at one another in silence, grasping their hands hard again and again with intense emotion; thenFelix repeated his question a second time: "Who are you, monsieur? andwhere do you come from?"

"Your name, surname, age, occupation?" the Frenchman repeated, burstingforth at last into national levity. "Ah, monsieur, what a joy to hearthose well-known inquiries in my ear once more. I hasten to gratifyyour legitimate curiosity. Name: Peyron; Christian name: Jules; age:forty-one; occupation: convict, escaped from New Caledonia. "

Under any other circumstances that last qualification might possibly havebeen held an undesirable one in a new acquaintance. But on the island ofBoupari, among so many heathen cannibals, prejudices pale beforecommunity of blood; even a New Caledonian convict is at least a ChristianEuropean. Felix received the strange announcement without the faintestshock of surprise or disgust. He would gladly have shaken hands then andthere with M. Jules Peyron, indeed, had he introduced himself in evenless equivocal language as a forger, a pickpocket, or an escapedhouse-breaker. 

"And you, monsieur?" the ex-convict inquired, politely. 

Felix told him in a few words the history of their accident and theirarrival on the island. 

"_Comment_?" the Frenchman exclaimed, with surprise and delight. "A ladyas well; a charming English lady! What an acquisition to the society ofBoupari! _Quelle chance! Quel bonheur!_ Monsieur, you are welcome, andmademoiselle too! And in what quality do you live here? You are a god, Isee; otherwise you would not have dared to transgress my taboo, nor wouldthis young man--your Shadow, I suppose--have permitted you to do so. Butwhich sort of god, pray? Korong--or Tula?"

"They call me Korong, " Felix answered, all tremulous, feeling himself nowon the very verge of solving this profound mystery. 

"And mademoiselle as well?" the Frenchman exclaimed, in a tone of dismay. 

"And mademoiselle as well, " Felix replied. "At least, so I make out. Weare both Korong. I have many times heard the natives call us so. "

His new acquaintance seized his hand with every appearance of genuinealarm and regret. "My poor friend, " he exclaimed, with a horrified face, "this is terrible, terrible! Tu-Kila-Kila is a very hard man. What canwe do to save your life and mademoiselle's! We are powerless! Powerless!I have only that much to say. I condole with you! I commiserate you!"

"Why, what does Korong mean?" Felix asked, with blanched lips. "Is itthen something so very terrible?"

"Terrible! Ah, terrible!" the Frenchman answered, holding up his hands inhorror and alarm. "I hardly know how we can avert your fate. Step withinmy poor hut, or under the shade of my Tree of Liberty here, and I willtell you all the little I know about it. "

CHAPTER XV. 

THE SECRET OF KORONG. 

"You have lived here long?" Felix asked, with tremulous interest, as hetook a seat on the bench under the big tree, toward which his new hostpolitely motioned him. "You know the people well, and all theirsuperstitions?"

"_Hélas_, yes, monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, with a sigh of regret. "Eighteen years have I spent altogether in this beast of a Pacific; nineas a convict in New Caledonia, and nine more as a god here; and, believeme, I hardly know which is the harder post. Yours is the first White faceI have ever seen since my arrival in this cursed island. "

"And how did you come here?" Felix asked, half breathless, for the verymagnitude of the stake at issue--no less a stake than Muriel's life--madehim hesitate to put point-blank the question he had most at heart for themoment. 

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, trying to cover his rags withhis native cape, "that explains itself easily. I was a medical studentin Paris in the days of the Commune. Ah! that beloved Paris--how faraway it seems now from Boupari! Like all other students I wasadvanced--Republican, Socialist--what you will--a political enthusiast. When the events took place--the events of '70--I espoused withall my heart the cause of the people. You know the rest. Thebourgeoisie conquered. I was taken red-handed, as the Versaillaissaid--my pistol in my grasp--an open revolutionist. They tried me bycourt-martial--br'r'r--no delay--guilty, M. Le President--hard labor toperpetuity. They sent me with that brave Louise Michel and so many othergood comrades of the cause to New Caledonia. There, nine years of convictlife was more than enough for me. One day I found a canoe on the shore--alittle Kanaka canoe--you know the type--a mere shapeless dug-out. HastilyI loaded it with food--yam, taro, bread-fruit--I pushed it off into thesea--I embarked alone--I intrusted myself and all my fortunes to the BonDieu and the wide Pacific. The Bon Dieu did not wholly justify myconfidence. It is a way he has--that inscrutable one. Six weeks I floatedhither and thither before varying winds. At last one evening I reachedthis island. I floated ashore. And, _enfin, me voilà_!"

"Then you were a political prisoner only?" Felix said, politely. 

M. Jules Peyron drew himself up with much dignity in his tatteredcostume. "Do I look like a card-sharper, monsieur?" he asked simply, withoffended honor. 

Felix hastened to reassure him of his perfect confidence. "On thecontrary, monsieur, " he said, "the moment I heard you were a convict fromNew Caledonia, I felt certain in my heart you could be nothing less thanone of those unfortunate and ill-treated Communards. "

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman said, seizing his hand a second time, "Iperceive that I have to do with a man of honor and a man of feeling. Well, I landed on this island, and they made me a god. From that day tothis I have been anxious only to shuffle off my unwelcome divinity, andreturn as a mere man to the shores of Europe. Better be a valet in Paris, say I, than a deity of the best in Polynesia. It is a monotonousexistence here--no society, no life--and the _cuisine_--bah, execrable!But till the other day, when your steamer passed, I have scarcely evensighted a European ship. A boat came here once, worse luck, to put offtwo girls (who didn't belong to Boupari), returned indentured laborersfrom Queensland; but, unhappily, it was during my taboo--the Month ofBirds, as my jailers call it--and though I tried to go down to it or tomake signals of distress, the natives stood round my hut with theirspears in line, and prevented me by main force from signalling to them orcommunicating with them. Even the other day, I never heard of yourarrival till a fortnight had elapsed, for I had been sick with fever, thefever of the country, and as soon as my Shadow told me of your advent itwas my taboo again, and I was obliged to defer for myself the honor ofcalling upon my new acquaintances. I am a god, of course, and can dowhat I like; but while my taboo is on, _ma foi_, monsieur, I can hardlycall my life my own, I assure you. "

"But your taboo is up to-day, " Felix said, "so my Shadow tells me. "

"Your Shadow is a well-informed young man, " M. Peyron answered, with easyFrench sprightliness. "As for my donkey of a valet, he never by anychance knows or tells me anything. I had just sent him out--the pig--tolearn, if possible, your nationality and name, and what hours youpreferred, as I proposed later in the day to pay my respects tomademoiselle, your friend, if she would deign to receive me. "

"Miss Ellis would be charmed, I'm sure, " Felix replied, smiling in spiteof himself at so much Parisian courtliness under so ragged an exterior. "It is a great pleasure to us to find we are not really alone on thisbarbarous island. But you were going to explain to me, I believe, theexact nature of this peril in which we both stand--the precisedistinction between Korong and Tula?"

"Alas, monsieur, " the Frenchman replied, drawing circles in the dust withhis stick with much discomposure, "I can only tell you I have been tryingto make out the secret of this distinction myself ever since the firstday I came to the island; but so reticent are all the natives about it, and so deep is the taboo by which the mystery is guarded, that even nowI, who am myself Tula, can tell you but very little with certainty on thesubject. All I can say for sure is this--that gods called Tula retaintheir godship in permanency for a very long time, although at the endsome violent fate, which I do not clearly understand, is destined tobefall them. That is my condition as King of the Birds--for no doubtthey have told you that I, Jules Peyron--Republican, Socialist, Communist--have been elevated against my will to the honors of royalty. That is my condition, and it matters but little to me, for I know notwhen the end may come; and we can but die once; how or where, whatmatters? Meanwhile, I have my distractions, my little _agréments_--mygardens, my music, my birds, my native friends, my coquetries, my aviary. As King of the Birds, I keep a small collection of my subjects in theliving form, not unworthy of a scientific eye. Monsieur is noornithologist? Ah, no, I thought not. Well, for me, it matters little; mytime is long. But for you and Mademoiselle, who are both Korong--" Hepaused significantly. 

"What happens, then, to those who are Korong?" Felix asked, with a lumpin his throat--not for himself, but for Muriel. 

The Frenchman looked at him with a doubtful look. "Monsieur, " he said, after a pause, "I hardly know how to break the truth to you properly. Youare new to the island, and do not yet understand these savages. It is soterrible a fate. So deadly. So certain. Compose your mind to hear theworst. And remember that the worst is very terrible. "

Felix's blood froze within him; but he answered bravely all the same, "Ithink I have guessed it myself already. The Korong are offered as humansacrifices to Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"That is nearly so, " his new friend replied, with a solemn nod of hishead. "Every Korong is bound to die when his time comes. Your time willdepend on the particular date when you were admitted to Heaven. "

Felix reflected a moment. "It was on the 26th of last month, " heanswered, shortly. 

"Very well, " M. Peyron replied, after a brief calculation. "You havejust six months in all to live from that date. They will offer you up byTu-Kila-Kila's hut the day the sun reaches the summer solstice. "

"But why did they make us gods then?" Felix interposed, with tremulouslips. "Why treat us with such honors meanwhile, if they mean in the endto kill us?"

He received his sentence of death with greater calmness than theFrenchman had expected. "Monsieur, " the older arrival answered, with areflective air, "there comes in the mystery. If we could solve that, wecould find out also the way of escape for you. For there _is_ a way ofescape for every Korong: I know it well; I gather it from all the nativessay; it is a part of their mysteries; but what it may be, I havehitherto, in spite of all my efforts, failed to discover. All I _do_ knowis this: Tu-Kila-Kila hates and dreads in his heart every Korong that iselevated to Heaven, and would do anything, if he dared, to get rid of himquietly. But he doesn't dare, because he is bound hand and foot himself, too, by taboos innumerable. Taboo is the real god and king of Boupari. All the island alike bows down to it and worships it. "

"Have you ever known Korongs killed?" Felix asked once more, trembling. 

"Yes, monsieur. Many of them, alas! And this is what happens. When theKorong's time is come, as these creatures say, either on the summer orwinter solstice, he is bound with native ropes, and carried up sopinioned to Tu-Kila-Kila's temple. In the time before this man wasTu-Kila-Kila, I remember--"

"Stop, " Felix cried. "I don't understand. Has there then been more thanone Tu-Kila-Kila?"

"Why, yes, " the Frenchman answered. "Certainly, many. And there themystery comes in again. We have always among us one Tu-Kila-Kila oranother. He is a sort of pope, or grand lama, _voyez-vous?_ No sooner isthe last god dead than another god succeeds him and takes his name, orrather his title. This young man who now holds the place was knownoriginally as Lavita, the son of Sami. But what is more curious still, the islanders always treat the new god as if he were precisely theself-same person as the old one. So far as I have been able to understandtheir theology, they believe in a sort of transmigration of souls. Thesoul of the Tu-Kila-Kila who is just dead passes into and animates thebody of the Tu-Kila-Kila who succeeds to the office. Thus they speak asthough Tu-Kila-Kila were a continuous existence; and the god of themoment, himself, will even often refer to events which occurred to him, as he says, a hundred years ago or more, but which he really knows, ofcourse, only by the persistent tradition of the islanders. They are avery curious people, these Bouparese. But what would you have? Amongsavages, one expects things to be as among savages. "

Felix drew a quiet sigh. It was certain that on the island of Bouparithat expectation, at least, was never doomed to disappointment. "And whena Korong is taken to Tu-Kila-Kila's temple, " he asked, continuing thesubject of most immediate interest, "what happens next to him?"

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, "I hardly know whether I do right ornot to say the truth to you. Each Korong is a god for one season only;when the year renews itself, as the savages believe, by a change ofseason, then a new Korong must be chosen by Heaven to fill the place ofthe old ones who are to be sacrificed. This they do in order that theseasons may be ever fresh and vigorous. Especially is that the case withthe two meteorological gods, so to speak, the King of the Rain and theQueen of the Clouds. Those, I understand, are the posts in their pantheonwhich you and the lady who accompanies you occupy. "

"You are right, " Felix answered, with profoundly painful interest. "Andwhat, then, becomes of the king and queen who are sacrificed?"

"I will tell you, " M. Peyron answered, dropping his voice still lowerinto a sympathetic key. "But steel your mind for the worst beforehand. Itis sufficiently terrible. On the day of your arrival, this, I learn frommy Shadow, is just what happened. That night, Tu-Kila-Kila made his greatfeast, and offered up the two chief human sacrifices of the year, thefree-will offering and the scapegoat of trespass. They keep then afestival, which answers to our own New-Year's day in Europe. Nextmorning, in accordance with custom, the King of the Rain and the Queen ofthe Clouds were to be publicly slain, in order that a new and morevigorous king and queen should be chosen in their place, who might makethe crops grow better and the sky more clement. In the midst of thishorrid ceremony, you and mademoiselle, by pure chance, arrived. You wereimmediately selected by Tu-Kila-Kila, for some reason of his own, which Ido not sufficiently understand, but which is, nevertheless, obvious toall the initiated, as the next representatives of the rain-giving gods. You were presented to Heaven on their little platform raised about theground, and Heaven accepted you. Then you were envisaged with theattributes of divinity; the care of the rain and the clouds was made overto you; and immediately after, as soon as you were gone, the old king andqueen were laid on an altar near Tu-Kila-Kila's home, and slain withtomahawks. Their flesh was next hacked from their bodies with knives, cooked, and eaten; their bones were thrown into the sea, the mother ofall waters, as the natives call it. And that is the fate, I fear theinevitable fate, that will befall you and mademoiselle at these wretches'hands about the commencement of a fresh season. "

Felix knew the worst now, and bent his head in silence. His worst fearswere confirmed; but, after all, even this knowledge was better than somuch uncertainty. 

And now that he knew when "his time was up, " as the natives phrased it, he would know when to redeem his promise to Muriel. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A VERY FAINT CLUE. 

"But you hinted at some hope, some chance of escape, " Felix cried atlast, looking up from the ground and mastering his emotion. "What now isthat hope? Conceal nothing from me. "

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, shrugging his shoulders with anexpression of utter impotence, "I have as good reasons for wishing tofind out all that as even you can have. _Your_ secret is _my_ secret;but with all my pains and astuteness I have been unable to discoverit. The natives are reticent, very reticent indeed, about all thesematters. They fear taboo; and they fear Tu-Kila-Kila. The women, tobe sure, in a moment of expansion, might possibly tell one; but, then, the women, unfortunately, are not admitted to the mysteries. They knowno more of all these things than we do. The most I have been able togather for certain is this--that on the discovery of the secret dependTu-Kila-Kila's life and power. Every Boupari man knows this Great Taboo;it is communicated to him in the assembly of adults when he gets tattooedand reaches manhood. But no Boupari man ever communicates it tostrangers; and for that reason, perhaps, as I believe, Tu-Kila-Kila oftenchooses for Korong, as far as possible, those persons who are cast bychance upon the island. It has always been the custom, so far as I canmake out, to treat castaways or prisoners taken in war as gods, and thenat the end of their term to kill them ruthlessly. This plan is popularwith the people at large, because it saves themselves from the dangeroushonors of deification; but it also serves Tu-Kila-Kila's purpose, becauseit usually elevates to Heaven those innocent persons who are unacquaintedwith that fatal secret which is, as the natives say, Tu-Kila-Kila'sdeath--his word of dismissal. "

"Then if only we could find out this secret--" Felix cried. 

His new friend interrupted him. "What hope is there of your findingit out, monsieur, " he exclaimed, "you, who have only a few months tolive--when I, who have spent nine long years of exile on the island, andseen two Tu-Kila-Kilas rise and fall, have been unable, with my utmostpains, to discover it? _Tenez_; you have no idea yet of the superstitionsof these people, or the difficulties that lie in the way of fathomingthem. Come this way to my aviary; I will show you something that willhelp you to realize the complexities of the situation. "

He rose and led the way to another cleared space at the back of the hut, where several birds of gaudy plumage were fastened to perches on sticksby leathery lashes of dried shark's skin, tied just above their talons. "I am the King of the Birds, monsieur, you must remember, " the Frenchmansaid, fondling one of his screaming _protégés_. "These are a few of mysubjects. But I do not keep them for mere curiosity. Each of them is theSoul of the tribe to which it belongs. This, for example--my Cluseret--isthe Soul of all the gray parrots; that that you see yonder--Badinguet, I call him--is the Soul of the hawks; this, my Mimi, is the Soul of thelittle yellow-crested kingfisher. My task as King of the Birds is to keepa representative of each of these always on hand; in which endeavor Iam faithfully aided by the whole population of the island, who bring meeggs and nests and young birds in abundance. If the Soul of the littleyellow kingfisher now were to die, without a successor being found readyat once to receive and embody it, then the whole race of little yellowkingfishers would vanish altogether; and if I myself, the King of theBirds, who am, as it were, the Soul and life of all of them, were to diewithout a successor being at hand to receive my spirit, then all the raceof birds, with one accord, would become extinct forthwith and forever. "

He moved among his pets easily, like a king among his subjects. Most ofthem seemed to know him and love his presence. Presently, he came to onevery old parrot, quite different from any Felix had ever seen on anytrees in the island; it was a parrot with a black crest and a red mark onits throat, half blind with age, and tottering on its pedestal. Thissolemn old bird sat apart from all the others, nodding its headoracularly in the sunlight, and blinking now and again with its whiteeyelids in a curious senile fashion. 

The Frenchman turned to Felix with an air of profound mystery. "Thisbird, " he said, solemnly stroking its head with his hand, while theparrot turned round to him and bit at his finger with half-dodderingaffection--"this bird is the oldest of all my birds---is it not so, Methuselah?--and illustrates well in one of its aspects the superstitionof these people. Yes, my friend, you are the last of a kind now otherwiseextinct, are you not, _mon vieux?_ No, no, there--gently! Once upon atime, the natives tell me, dozens of these parrots existed in the island;they flocked among the trees, and were held very sacred; but they werehard to catch and difficult to keep, and the Kings of the Birds, mypredecessors, failed to secure an heir and coadjutor to this one. So asthe Soul of the species, which you see here before you, grew old andfeeble, the whole of the race to which it belonged grew old and feeblewith it. One by one they withered away and died, till at last thissolitary specimen alone remained to vouch for the former existence of therace in the island. Now, the islanders say, nothing but the Soul itselfis left; and when the Soul dies, the red-throated parrots will be goneforever. One of my predecessors paid with his life in awful tortures forhis remissness in not providing for the succession to the soulship. Itell you these things in order that you may see whether they cast anylight for you upon your own position; and also because the oldest andwisest natives say that this parrot alone, among beasts or birds oruninitiated things, knows the secret on which depends the life of theTu-Kila-Kila for the time being. "

"Can the parrot speak?" Felix asked, with profound emotion. 

"Monsieur, he can speak, and he speaks frequently. But not one word ofall he says is comprehensible either to me or to any other living being. His tongue is that of a forgotten nation. The islanders understand him nomore than I do. He has a very long sermon or poem, which he knows byheart, in some unknown language, and he repeats it often at full lengthfrom time to time, especially when he has eaten well and feels full andhappy. The oldest natives tell a romantic legend about this strangerecitation of the good Methuselah--I call him Methuselah because of hisgreat age--but I do not really know whether their tale is true or purelyfanciful. You never can trust these Polynesian traditions. "

"What is the legend?" Felix asked, with intense interest. "In an islandwhere we find ourselves so girt round by mystery within mystery, andtaboo within taboo, as this, every key is worth trying. It is well for usat least to learn everything we can about the ideas of the natives. Whoknows what clue may supply us at last with the missing link, which willenable us to break through this intolerable servitude?"

"Well, the story they tell us is this, " the Frenchman replied, "though I have gathered it only a hint at a time, from very old men, whodeclared at the same moment that some religious fear--of which they havemany--prevented them from telling me any further about it. It seems thata long time ago--how many years ago nobody knows, only that it was in thetime of the thirty-ninth Tu-Kila-Kila, before the reign of Lavita, theson of Sami--a strange Korong was cast up upon this island by the wavesof the sea, much as you and I have been in the present generation. Byaccident, says the story, or else, as others aver, through theindiscretion of a native woman who fell in love with him, and who worriedthe taboo out of her husband, the stranger became acquainted with thesecret of Tu-Kila-Kila. As the natives themselves put it, he learned theDeath of the High God, and where in the world his Soul was hidden. Thereupon, in some mysterious way or other, he became Tu-Kila-Kilahimself, and ruled as High God for ten years or more here on this island. Now, up to that time, the legend goes on, none but the men of the islandknew the secret; they learned it as soon as they were initiated in thegreat mysteries, which occur before a boy is given a spear and admittedto the rank of complete manhood. But sometimes a woman was told thesecret wrongfully by her husband or her lover; and one such woman, apparently, told the strange Korong, and so enabled him to becomeTu-Kila-Kila. "

"But where does the parrot come in?" Felix asked, with still profounderexcitement than ever. Something within him seemed to tell himinstinctively he was now within touch of the special key that must sooneror later unlock the mystery. 

"Well, " the Frenchman went on, still stroking the parrot affectionatelywith his hand, and smoothing down the feathers on its ruffled back, "thestrange Tu-Kila-Kila, who thus ruled in the island, though he learned tospeak Polynesian well, had a language of his own, a language of thebirds, which no man on earth could ever talk with him. So, to beguile histime and to have someone who could converse with him in his nativedialect, he taught this parrot to speak his own tongue, and spent most ofhis days in talking with it and fondling it. At last, after he hadinstructed it by slow degrees how to repeat this long sermon orpoem--which I have often heard it recite in a sing-song voice frombeginning to end--his time came, as they say, and he had to give way toanother Tu-Kila-Kila; for the Bouparese have a proverb like our own aboutthe king, 'The High God is dead; may the High God live forever!' Butbefore he gave up his Soul to his successor, and was eaten or buried, whichever is the custom, he handed over his pet to the King of the Birds, strictly charging all future bearers of that divine office to care forthe parrot as they would care for a son or a daughter. And so the nativesmake much of the parrot to the present day, saying he is greater thanany, save a Korong or a god, for he is the Soul of a dead race, summingit up in himself, and he knows the secret of the Death of Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"But you can't tell me what language he speaks?" Felix asked with adespairing gesture. It was terrible to stand thus within measurabledistance of the secret which might, perhaps, save Muriel's life, and yetbe perpetually balked by wheel within wheel of more than Egyptianmystery. 

"Who can say?" the Frenchman answered, shrugging his shouldershelplessly. "It isn't Polynesian; that I know well, for I speakBouparese now like a native of Boupari; and it isn't the only otherlanguage spoken at the present day in the South Seas--the Melanesian ofNew Caledonia--for that I learned well from the Kanakas while I wasserving my time as a convict among them. All we can say for certain isthat it may, perhaps, be some very ancient tongue. For parrots, we know, are immensely long-lived. Some of them, it is said, exceed their century. Is it not so, eh, my friend Methuselah?"

CHAPTER XVII. 

FACING THE WORST. 

Muriel, meanwhile, sat alone in her hut, frightened at Felix's unexpecteddisappearance so early in the morning, and anxiously awaiting her lover'sreturn, for she made no pretences now to herself that she did not reallylove Felix. Though the two might never return to Europe to be husband andwife, she did not doubt that before the eye of Heaven they were alreadybetrothed to one another as truly as though they had plighted their trothin solemn fashion. Felix had risked his life for her, and had brought allthis misery upon himself in the attempt to save her. Felix was now allthe world that was left her. With Felix, she was happy, even on thishorrible island; without him, she was miserable and terrified, no matterwhat happened. 

"Mali, " she cried to her faithful attendant, as soon as she found Felixwas missing from his tent, "what's become of Mr. Thurstan? Where can hebe gone, I wonder, this morning?"

"You no fear, Missy Queenie, " Mali answered, with the childishconfidence of the native Polynesian. "Mistah Thurstan, him gone to seeman-a-oui-oui, the King of the Birds. Month of Birds finish last night;man-a-oui-oui no taboo any longer. King of the Birds keep very oldparrot, Boupari folk tell me; and old parrot very wise, know how to makeTu-Kila-Kila. Mistah Thurstan, him gone to find man-a-oui-oui. Parrottell him plenty wise thing. Parrot wiser than Boupari people; know verygood medicine; wise like Queensland lady and gentleman. " And Mali setherself vigorously to work to wash the wooden platter on which she servedup her mistress's yam for breakfast. 

It was curious to Muriel to see how readily Mali had slipped fromsavagery to civilization in Queensland, and how easily she had slippedback again from civilization to savagery in Boupari. In waiting on hermistress she was just the ordinary trained native Australian servant; inevery other respect she was the simple unadulterated heathen Polynesian. She recognized in Muriel a white lady of the English sort, and treatedher within the hut as white ladies were invariably treated in Queensland;but she considered that at Boupari one must do as Boupari does, and itnever for a moment occurred to her simple mind to doubt the omnipotenceof Tu-Kila-Kila in his island realm any more than she had doubted theomnipotence of the white man and his local religion in their proper place(as she thought it) in Queensland. 

An hour or two passed before Felix returned. At last he arrived, verywhite and pale, and Muriel saw at once by the mere look on his face thathe had learned some terrible news at the Frenchman's. 

"Well, you found him?" she cried, taking his hand in hers, but hardlydaring to ask the fatal question at once. 

And Felix, sitting down, as pale as a ghost, answered faintly, "Yes, Muriel, I found him!"

"And he told you everything?"

"Everything he knew, my poor child. Oh, Muriel, Muriel, don't ask me whatit is. It's too terrible to tell you. "

Muriel clasped her white hands together, held bloodless downward, andlooked at him fixedly. "Mali, you can go, " she said. And the Shadow, rising up with childish confidence, glided from the hut, and left them, for the first time since their arrival on the central island, alonetogether. 

Muriel looked at him once more with the same deadly fixed look. "Withyou, Felix, " she said, slowly, "I can bear or dare anything. I feel as ifthe bitterness of death were past long ago. I know it must come. I onlywant to be quite sure when. . . . And besides, you must remember, I haveyour promise. "

Felix clasped his own hands despondently in return, and gazed across ather from his seat a few feet off in unspeakable misery. 

"Muriel, " he cried, "I couldn't. I haven't the heart. I daren't. "

Muriel rose and laid her hand solemnly on his arm. "You will!" sheanswered, boldly. "You can! You must! I know I can trust your promise forthat. This moment, if you like. I would not shrink. But you will neverlet me fall alive into the hands of those wretches. Felix, from _your_hand I could stand anything. I'm not afraid to die. I love you toodearly. "

Felix held her white little wrist in his grasp and sobbed like a child. Her very bravery and confidence seemed to unman him, utterly. 

She looked at him once more. "When?" she asked, quietly, but with lips aspale as death. 

"In about four months from now, " Felix answered, endeavoring to be calm. 

"And they will kill us both?"

"Yes, both. I think so. "

"Together?"

"Together. "

Muriel drew a deep sigh. 

"Will you know the day beforehand?" she asked. 

"Yes. The Frenchman told me it. He has known others killed in theself-same fashion. "

"Then, Felix---the night before it comes, you will promise me, will you?"

"Muriel, Muriel, I could never dare to kill you. "

She laid her hand soothingly on his. She stroked him gently. "You area man, " she said, looking up into his eyes with confidence. "I trustyou. I believe in you. I know you will never let these savages hurtme. . . . Felix, in spite of everything, I've been happier since we came tothis island together than ever I have been in my life before. I've had mywish. I didn't want to miss in life the one thing that life has bestworth giving. I haven't missed it now. I know I haven't; for I love you, and you love me. After that, I can die, and die gladly. If I die with_you_, that's all I ask. These seven or eight terrible weeks have made mefeel somehow unnaturally calm. When I came here first I lived all thetime in an agony of terror. I've got over the agony of terror now. I'mquite resigned and happy. All I ask is to be saved--by you--from thecruel hands of these hateful cannibals. "

Felix raised her white hand just once to his lips. It was the first timehe had ever ventured to kiss her. He kissed it fervently. She let it dropas if dead by her side. 

"Now tell me all that happened, " she said. "I'm strong enough to bear it. I feel such a woman now--so wise and calm. These few weeks have made megrow from a girl into a woman all at once. There's nothing I daren'thear, if you'll tell me it, Felix. "

Felix took up her hand again and held it in his, as he narrated the wholestory of his visit to the Frenchman. When Muriel had heard it, she saidonce more, slowly, "I don't think there's any hope in all these wildplans of playing off superstition against superstition. To my mind thereare only two chances left for us now. One is to concoct with theFrenchman some means of getting away by canoe from the island--I'd rathertrust the sea than the tender mercy of these dreadful people; the otheris to keep a closer lookout than ever for the merest chance of a passingsteamer. "

Felix drew a deep sigh. "I'm afraid neither's much use, " he said. "If wetried to get away, dogged as we are, day and night, by our Shadows, thenatives would follow us with their war-canoes in battle array and hack usto pieces; for Peyron says that, regarding us as gods, they think therain would vanish from their island forever if once they allowed us toget away alive and carry the luck with us. And as to the steamers, wehaven't seen a trace of one since we left the Australasian. Probably itwas only by the purest accident that even she ever came so close in toBoupari. "

"At any rate, " Muriel cried, still clasping his hand tight, and lettingthe tears now trickle slowly down her pale white cheeks, "we can talk itall over some day with M. Peyron. "

"We can talk it over to-day, " Felix answered, "if it comes to that; forPeyron means to step round, he says, a little later in the afternoon, topay his respects to the first white lady he has ever seen since he leftNew Caledonia. "

CHAPTER XVIII. 

TU-KILA-KILA PLAYS A CARD. 

Before the Frenchman could carry out his plan, however, he was himselfthe recipient of the high honor of a visit from his superior god andchief, Tu-Kila-Kila. 

Every day and all day long, save on a few rare occasions when specialduties absolved him, the custom and religion of the islanders prescribedthat their supreme incarnate deity should keep watch and ward withoutcessation over the great spreading banyan-tree that overshadowed withits dark boughs his temple-palace. High god as he was held to be, andall-powerful within the limits of his own strict taboos, Tu-Kila-Kila wasyet as rigidly bound within those iron laws of custom and religious usageas the meanest and poorest of his subject worshippers. From sunrise tosunset, and far on into the night, the Pillar of Heaven was compelled toprowl up and down, with spear in hand and tomahawk at side, as Felix hadso often seen him, before the sacred trunk, of which he appeared to be insome mysterious way the appointed guardian. His very power, it seemed, was intimately bound up with the performance of that ceaseless andirksome duty; he was a god in whose hands the lives of his people werebut as dust in the balance; but he remained so only on the onerouscondition of pacing to and fro, like a sentry, forever before the stillmore holy and venerable object he was chosen to protect from attack orinjury. Had he failed in his task, had he slumbered at his post, all godthough he might be, his people themselves would have risen in a body andtorn him limb from limb before their ancestral fetich as a sacrilegiouspretender. 

At certain times and seasons, however, as for example at all highfeasts and festivals, Tu-Kila-Kila had respite for a while from thisconstant treadmill of mechanical divinity. Whenever the moon was at thehalf-quarter, or the planets were in lucky conjunctions, or a red glowlit up the sky by night, or the sacred sacrificial fires of human fleshwere lighted, then Tu-Kila-Kila could lay aside his tomahawk and spear, and become for a while as the islanders, his fellows, were. At othertimes, too, when he went out in state to visit the lesser deities of hiscourt, the King of Fire and the King of Water made a solemn taboo beforeHe left his home, which protected the sacred tree from aggression duringits guardian's absence. Then Tu-Kila-Kila, shaded by his divine umbrella, and preceded by the noise of the holy tom-toms, could go like a monarchover all parts of his realm, giving such orders as he pleased (within thelimits of custom) to his inferior officers. It was in this way that henow paid his visit to M. Jules Peyron, King of the Birds. And he did sofor what to him were amply sufficient reasons. 

It had not escaped Tu-Kila-Kila's keen eye, as he paced among theskeletons in his yard that morning, that Felix Thurstan, the King of theRain, had taken his way openly toward the Frenchman's quarters. He feltpretty sure, therefore, that Felix had by this time learned another whiteman was living on the island; and he thought it an ominous fact that thenew-comer should make his way toward his fellow-European's hut on thevery first morning when the law of taboo rendered such a visit possible. The savage is always by nature suspicious; and Tu-Kila-Kila had groundsenough of his own for suspicion in this particular instance. The twowhite men were surely brewing mischief together for the Lord of Heavenand Earth, the Illuminer of the Glowing Light of the Sun; he must makehaste and see what plan they were concocting against the sacred tree andthe person of its representative, the King of Plants and of the Host ofHeaven. 

But it isn't so easy to make haste when all your movements are impededand hampered by endless taboos and a minutely annoying ritual. BeforeTu-Kila-Kila could get himself under way, sacred umbrella, tom-toms, andall, it was necessary for the King of Fire and the King of Water to maketaboo on an elaborate scale with their respective elements; and so by thetime the high god had reached M. Jules Peyron's garden, Felix Thurstanhad already some time since returned to Muriel's hut and his ownquarters. 

Tu-Kila-Kila approached the King of the Birds, amid loud clapping ofhands, with considerable haughtiness. To say the truth, there was no lovelost between the cannibal god and his European subordinate. The savage, puffed up as he was in his own conceit, had nevertheless always anuncomfortable sense that, in his heart of hearts, the impassive Frenchmanhad but a low opinion of him. So he invariably tried to make up by thesolemnity of his manner and the loudness of his assertions for anytrifling scepticism that might possibly exist in the mind of hisfollower. 

On this particular occasion, as he reached the Frenchman's plot, Tu-Kila-Kila stepped forward across the white taboo-line with asuspicious and peering eye. "The King of the Rain has been here, " hesaid, in a pompous tone, as the Frenchman rose and saluted himceremoniously. "Tu-Kila-Kila's eyes are sharp. They never sleep. The sunis his sight. He beholds all things. You cannot hide aught in heaven orearth from the knowledge of him that dwells in heaven. I look down uponland and sea, and spy out all that takes place or is planned in them. Iam very holy and very cruel. I see all earth and I drink the blood of allmen. The King of the Rain has come this morning to visit the King of theBirds. Where is he now? What has your divinity done with him?"

He spoke from under the sheltering cover of his veiled umbrella. TheFrenchman looked back at him with as little love as Tu-Kila-Kila himselfwould have displayed had his face been visible. "Yes, you are a verygreat god, " he answered, in the conventional tone of Polynesianadulation, with just a faint under-current of irony running through hisaccent as he spoke. "You say the truth. You do, indeed, know all things. What need for me, then, to tell you, whose eye is the sun, that mybrother, the King of the Rain, has been here and gone again? You know ityourself. Your eye has looked upon it. My brother was indeed with me. Heconsulted me as to the showers I should need from his clouds for thebirds, my subjects. "

"And where is he gone now?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked, without attempting toconceal the displeasure in his tone, for he more than half suspected theFrenchman of a sacrilegious and monstrous design of chaffing him. 

The King of the Birds bowed low once more. "Tu-Kila-Kila's glance iskeener than my hawk's, " he answered, with the accustomed Polynesianimagery. "He sees over the land with a glance, like my parrots, and overthe sea with sharp sight, like my albatrosses. He knows where my brother, the King of the Rain, has gone. For me, who am the least among all thegods, I sit here on my perch and blink like a crow. I do not know thesethings. They are too high and too deep for me. "

Tu-Kila-Kila did not like the turn the conversation was taking. Beforehis own attendants such hints, indeed, were almost dangerous. Once letthe savage begin to doubt, and the Moral Order goes with a crashimmediately. Besides, he must know what these white men had been talkingabout. "Fire and Water, " he said in a loud voice, turning round to histwo chief satellites, "go far down the path, and beat the tom-toms. Fenceoff with flood and flame the airy height where the King of the Birdslives; fence it off from all profane intrusion. I wish to confer insecret with this god, my brother. When we gods talk together, it is notwell that others should hear our converse. Make a great Taboo. I, Tu-Kila-Kila, myself have said it. "

Fire and Water, bowing low, backed down the path, beating tom-toms asthey went, and left the savage and the Frenchman alone together. 

As soon as they were gone, Tu-Kila-Kila laid aside his umbrella with apositive sigh of relief. Now his fellow-countrymen were well out of theway, his manner altered in a trice, as if by magic. Barbarian as he was, he was quite astute enough to guess that Europeans cared nothing in theirhearts for all his mumbo-jumbo. He believed in it himself, but they didnot, and their very unbelief made him respect and fear them. 

"Now that we two are alone, " he said, glancing carelessly around him, "wetwo who are gods, and know the world well--we two who see everything inheaven or earth--there is no need for concealment--we may talk as plainlyas we will with one another. Come, tell me the truth! The new white manhas seen you?"

"He has seen me, yes, certainly, " the Frenchman admitted, taking a keenlook deep into the savage's cunning eyes. 

"Does he speak your language--the language of birds?" Tu-Kila-Kila askedonce more, with insinuating cunning. "I have heard that the sailing godsare of many languages. Are you and he of one speech or two? Aliens, orcountrymen?"

"He speaks my language as he speaks Polynesian, " the Frenchman replied, keeping his eye firmly fixed on his doubtful guest, "but it is not hisown. He has a tongue apart--the tongue of an island not far from mycountry, which we call England. "

Tu-Kila-Kila drew nearer, and dropped his voice to a confidentialwhisper. "Has he seen the Soul of all dead parrots?" he asked, with keeninterest in his voice. "The parrot that knows Tu-Kila-Kila's secret? Thatone over there--the old, the very sacred one?"

M. Peyron gazed round his aviary carelessly. "Oh, that one, " he answered, with a casual glance at Methuselah, as though one parrot or another weremuch the same to him. "Yes, I think he saw it. I pointed it out to him, in fact, as the oldest and strangest of all my subjects. "

Tu-Kila-Kila's countenance fell. "Did he hear it speak?" he asked, inevident alarm. "Did it tell him the story of Tu-Kila-Kila's secret?"

"No, it didn't speak, " the Frenchman answered. "It seldom does now. It isvery old. And if it did, I don't suppose the King of the Rain would haveunderstood one word of it. Look here, great god, allay your fears. You'rea terrible coward. I expect the real fact about the parrot is this: it isthe last of its own race; it speaks the language of some tribe of men whoonce inhabited these islands, but are now extinct. No human being atpresent alive, most probably, knows one word of that forgotten language. "

"You think not?" Tu-Kila-Kila asked, a little relieved. 

"I am the King of the Birds, and I know the voices of my subjects byheart; I assure you it is as I say, " M. Peyron answered, drawing himselfup solemnly. 

Tu-Kila-Kila looked askance, with something very closely approaching awink in his left eye. "We two are both gods, " he said, with a tinge ofirony in his tone. "We know what that means. . . . _I_ do not feel socertain. "

He stood close by the parrot with itching fingers. "It is very, very old, " he went on to himself, musingly. "It can't live long. Andthen--none but Boupari men will know the secret. "

As he spoke he darted a strange glance of hatred toward the unconsciousbird, the innocent repository, as he firmly believed, of the secretthat doomed him. The Frenchman had turned his back for a moment now, to fetch out a stool. Tu-Kila-Kila, casting a quick, suspicious eye tothe right and left, took a step nearer. The parrot sat mumbling on itsperch, inarticulately, putting its head on one side, and blinking itshalf-blinded eyes in the bright tropical sunshine. Tu-Kila-Kila pausedirresolute before its face for a second. If he only dared--one wring ofthe neck--one pinch of his finger and thumb almost!--and all would beover. But he dared not! he dared not! Your savage is overawed by theblind terrors of taboo. His predecessor, some elder Tu-Kila-Kila offorgotten days, had laid a great charm upon that parrot's life. Whoeverhurt it was to die an awful death of unspeakable torment. The King of theBirds had special charge to guard it. If even the Cannibal God himselfwrought it harm, who could tell what judgment might fall upon himforthwith, what terrible vengeance the dead Tu-Kila-Kila might wreakupon him in his ghostly anger? And that dead Tu-Kila-Kila was his ownSoul! His own Soul might flare up within him in some mystic way and burnhim to ashes. 

And yet--suppose this hateful new-comer, the King of the Rain, whomhe had himself made Korong on purpose to get rid of him the more easily, and so had elevated into his own worst potential enemy--suppose thisnew-comer, the King of the Rain, were by chance to speak that otherdialect of the bird-language, which the King of the Birds himself knewnot, but which the parrot had learned from his old master, the ancientTu-Kila-Kila of other days, and in which the bird still recited thesecret of the sacred tree and the Death of the Great God--ah, then hemight still have to fight hard for his divinity. He gazed angrily atthe bird. Methuselah blinked, and put his head on one side, and lookedcraftily askance at him. Tu-Kila-Kila hated it, that insolent creature. Was he not a god, and should he be thus bearded in his own island by amere Soul of dead birds, a poor, wretched parrot? But the curse! Whatmight not that portend? Ah, well, he would risk it. Glancing around himonce more to the right and left, to make sure that nobody was looking, the cunning savage put forth his hand stealthily, and tried with afriendly caress to seize the parrot. 

In a moment, before he had time to know what was happening, Methuselah--sleepy old dotard as he seemed--had woke up at once to asense of danger. Turning suddenly round upon the sleek, caressing hand, he darted his beak with a vicious peck at his assailant, and bit thedivine finger of the Pillar of Heaven as carelessly as he would havebitten any child on Boupari. Tu-Kila-Kila, thunder-struck, drew back hisarm with a start of surprise and a loud cry of pain. The bird had woundedhim. He shook his hand and stamped. Blood was dropping on the ground fromthe man-god's finger. He hardly knew what strange evil this omen of harmmight portend for the world. The Soul of all dead parrots had carried outthe curse, and had drawn red drops from the sacred veins of Tu-Kila-Kila. 

One must be a savage one's self, and superstitious at that, fully tounderstand the awful significance of this deadly occurrence. To drawblood from a god, and, above all, to let that blood fall upon the dust ofthe ground, is the very worst luck--too awful for the human mind tocontemplate. 

At the same moment, the parrot, awakened by the unexpected attack, threwback its head on its perch, and, laughing loud and long to itself in itsown harsh way, began to pour forth a whole volley of oaths in a gutturallanguage, of which neither Tu-Kila-Kila nor the Frenchman understood onesyllable. And at the same moment, too, M. Peyron himself, recalled fromthe door of his hut by Tu-Kila-Kila's sharp cry of pain and by his liegesubject's voluble flow of loud speech and laughter, ran up all agog toknow what was the matter. 

Tu-Kila-Kila, with an effort, tried to hide in his robe his woundedfinger. But the Frenchman caught at the meaning of the whole scene atonce, and interposed himself hastily between the parrot and itsassailant. "_Hé!_ my Methuselah, " he cried, in French, stroking theexultant bird with his hand, and smoothing its ruffled feathers, "did hetry to choke you, then? Did he try to get over you? That was a bravebird! You did well, _mon ami_, to bite him!. . . No, no, Life of the World, and Measurer of the Sun's Course, " he went on, in Polynesian, "you shallnot go near him. Keep your distance, I beg of you. You may be a highgod--though you were a scurvy wretch enough, don't you recollect, whenyou were only Lavita, the son of Sami--but I know your tricks. Hands offfrom my birds, say I. A curse is on the head of the Soul of dead parrots. You tried to hurt him, and see how the curse has worked itself out! Theblood of the great god, the Pillar of Heaven, has stained the gray dustof the island of Boupari. "

Tu-Kila-Kila stood sucking his finger, and looking the very picture ofthe most savage sheepishness. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

DOMESTIC BLISS. 

Tu-Kila-Kila went home that day in a very bad humor. The portent of thebitten finger had seriously disturbed him. For, strange as it sounds tous, he really believed himself in his own divinity; and the bare thoughtthat the holy soil of earth should be dabbled and wet with the blood of agod gave him no little uneasiness in his own mind on his way homeward. Besides, what would his people think of it if they found it out? At allhazards almost, he must strive to conceal this episode of the bite fromthe men of Boupari. A god who gets wounded, and, worse still, getswounded in the very act of trying to break a great taboo laid on byhimself in a previous incarnation--such a god undoubtedly lays himselfopen to the gravest misapprehensions on the part of his worshippers. Indeed, it was not even certain whether his people, if they knew, wouldany longer regard him as a god at all. The devotion of savages isprofound, but it is far from personal. When deities pass so readily fromone body to another, you must always keep a sharp lookout lest the greatspirit should at any minute have deserted his earthly tabernacle, andhave taken up his abode in a fresh representative. Honor the gods by allmeans; but make sure at the same time what particular house they are justthen inhabiting. 

It was the hour of siesta in Tu-Kila-Kila's tent. For a short space inthe middle of the day, during the heat of the sun, while Fire and Water, with their embers and their calabash, sat on guard in a porch by thebamboo gate, Tu-Kila-Kila, Pillar of Heaven and Threshold of Earth, hadrespite for a while from his daily task of guarding the sacred banyan, and could take his ease after his meal in his own quarters. While thatprecious hour of taboo lasted, no wandering dragon or spirit of the aircould hurt the holy tree, and no human assailant dare touch or approachit. Even the disease-making gods, who walk in the pestilence, could notblight or wither it. At all other times Tu-Kila-Kila mounted guard overhis tree with a jealousy that fairly astonished Felix Thurstan's soul;for Felix Thurstan only dimly understood as yet how implicitlyTu-Kila-Kila's own life and office were bound up with the inviolabilityof the banyan he protected. 

Within the hut, during that playtime of siesta, while the lizards (whoare also gods) ran up and down the wall, and puffed their orange throats, Tu-Kila-Kila lounged at his ease that afternoon, with one of his manywives--a tall and beautiful Polynesian woman, lithe and supple, as is thewont of her race, and as exquisitely formed in every limb and feature asa sculptured Greek goddess. A graceful wreath of crimson hibiscus adornedher shapely head, round which her long and glossy black hair was coiledin great rings with artistic profusion. A festoon of blue flowers anddark-red dracæna leaves hung like a chaplet over her olive-brown neck andswelling bust. One breadth of native cloth did duty for an apron orgirdle round her waist and hips. All else was naked. Her plump brown armswere set off by the green and crimson of the flowers that decked her. Tu-Kila-Kila glanced at his slave with approving eyes. He always likedUla; she pleased him the best of all his women. And she knew his ways, too: she never contradicted him. 

Among savages, guile is woman's best protection. The wife who knows whento give way with hypocritical obedience, and when to coax or wheedle heryielding lord, runs the best chance in the end for her life. Her model isnot the oak, but the willow. She must be able to watch for the risingsigns of ill-humor in her master's mind, and guard against themcarefully. If she is wise, she keeps out of her husband's way when hisanger is aroused, but soothes and flatters him to the top of his bentwhen his temper is just slightly or momentarily ruffled. 

"The Lord of Heaven and Earth is ill at ease, " Ula murmured, insinuatingly, as Tu-Kila-Kila winced once with the pain of his swollenfinger. "What has happened today to the Increaser of Bread-Fruit? My lordis sad. His eye is downcast. Who has crossed my master's will? Whohas dared to anger him?"

Tu-Kila-Kila kept the wounded hand wrapped up in a soft leaf, like awoolly mullein. All the way home he had been obliged to conceal it, anddisguise the pain he felt, lest Fire and Water should discover hissecret. For he dared not let his people know that the Soul of all deadparrots had bitten his finger, and drawn blood from the sacred veins ofthe man-god. But he almost hesitated now whether or not he should confidein Ula. A god may surely trust his own wedded wives. And yet--such needto be careful--women are so treacherous! He suspected Ula sometimes ofbeing a great deal too fond of that young man Toko, who used to be one ofthe temple attendants, and whom he had given as Shadow accordingly to theKing of the Rain, so as to get rid of him altogether from among the crowdof his followers. So he kept his own counsel for the moment, anddisguised his misfortune. "I have been to see the King of the Birds thismorning, " he said, in a grumbling voice; "and I do not like him. ThatGod is too insolent. For my part I hate these strangers, one and all. They have no respect for Tu-Kila-Kila like the men of Boupari. They areas bad as atheists. They fear not the gods, and the customs of ourfathers are not in them. "

Ula crept nearer, with one lithe round arm laid caressingly close to hermaster's neck. "Then why do you make them Korong?" she asked, withfeminine curiosity, like some wife who seeks to worm out of her husbandthe secret of freemasonry. "Why do you not cook them and eat them atonce, as soon as they arrive? They are very good food--so white and fine. That last new-comer, now--the Queen of the Clouds--why not eat her? Sheis plump and tender. "

"I like her, " Tu-Kila-Kila responded, in a gloating tone. "I like herevery way. I would have brought her here to my temple and admitted her atonce to be one of Tu-Kila-Kila's wives--only that Fire and Water wouldnot have permitted me. They have too many taboos, those awkward gods. Ido not love them. But I make my strangers Korong for a very wise reason. You women are fools; you understand nothing; you do not know themysteries. These things are a great deal too high and too deep for you. You could not comprehend them. But men know well why. They are wise; theyhave been initiated. Much more, then, do I, who am the very high god--whoeat human flesh and drink blood like water--who cause the sun to shineand the fruits to grow--without whom the day in heaven would fade and dieout, and the foundations of the earth would be shaken like a plantainleaf. "

Ula laid her soft brown hand soothingly on the great god's arm just abovethe elbow. "Tell me, " she said, leaning forward toward him, and lookingdeep into his eyes with those great speaking gray orbs of hers; "tellme, O Sustainer of the Equipoise of Heaven; I know you are great; I knowyou are mighty; I know you are holy and wise and cruel; but why must youlet these sailing gods who come from unknown lands beyond the placewhere the sun rises or sets--why must you let them so trouble and annoyyou? Why do you not at once eat them up and be done with them? Is nottheir flesh sweet? Is not their blood red? Are they not a dainty well fitfor the banquet of Tu-Kila-Kila?"

The savage looked at her for a moment and hesitated. A very beautifulwoman this Ula, certainly. Not one of all his wives had larger brownlimbs, or whiter teeth, or a deeper respect for his divine nature. He hadalmost a mind--it was only Ula? Why not break the silence enjoined upongods toward women, and explain this matter to her? Not the great secretitself, of course--the secret on which hung the Death and Transmigrationof Tu-Kila-Kila--oh, no; not that one. The savage was far too cunningin his generation to intrust that final terrible Taboo to the ears of awoman. But the reason why he made all strangers Korong. A woman mightsurely be trusted with that--especially Ula. She was so very handsome. And she was always so respectful to him. 

"Well, the fact of it is, " he answered, laying his hand on her neck, thatplump brown neck of hers, under the garland of dracæna leaves, andstroking it voluptuously, "the sailing gods who happen upon this islandfrom time to time are made Korong--but hush! it is taboo. " He gazedaround the hut suspiciously. "Are all the others away?" he asked, in afrightened tone. "Fire and Water would denounce me to all my people ifonce they found I had told a taboo to a woman. And as for you, they wouldtake you, because you knew it, and would pull your flesh from your boneswith hot stone pincers!"

Ula rose and looked about her at the door of the tent. She nodded thrice;then she glided back, serpentine, and threw herself gracefully, in astatuesque pose, on the native mat beside him. "Here, drink some morekava, " she cried, holding a bowl to his lips, and wheedling him with hereyes. "Kava is good; it is fit for gods. It makes them royally drunk, asbecomes great deities. The spirits of our ancestors dwell in the bowl;when you drink of the kava they mount by degrees into your heart andhead. They inspire brave words. They give you thoughts of heaven. Drink, my master, drink. The Ruler of the Sun in Heaven is thirsty. "

She lay propped on one elbow, with her face close to his; and offeredhim, with one brown, irresistible hand, the intoxicating liquor. Tu-Kila-Kila took the bowl, and drank a second time, for he had drunk ofit once with his dinner already. It was seldom he allowed himself theluxury of a second draught of that very stupefying native intoxicant, forhe knew too well the danger of insecurely guarding his sacred tree; buton this particular occasion, as on so many others in the collective lifeof humanity, "the woman tempted him, " and he acted as she told him. Hedrank it off deep. "Ha, ha! that is good!" he cried, smacking his lips. "That is a drink fit for a god. No woman can make kava like you, Ula. " Hetoyed with her arms and neck lazily once more. "You are the queen of mywives, " he went on, in a dreamy voice. "I like you so well, that, plumpas you are, I really believe, Ula, I could never make up my mind to eatyou. "

"My lord is very gracious, " Ula made answer, in a soft, low tone, pretending to caress him. And for some minutes more she continued to makemuch of him in the fulsome strain of Polynesian flattery. 

At last the kava had clearly got into Tu-Kila-Kila's head. Then Ula bentforward once more and again attacked him. "Now I know you will tell me, "she said, coaxingly, "why you make them Korong. As long as I live, I willnever speak or hint of it to anybody anywhere. And if I do--why, theremedy is near. I am your meat--take me and eat me. "

Even cannibals are human; and at the touch of her soft hand, Tu-Kila-Kilagave way slowly. "I made them Korong, " he answered, in rather thickaccents, "because it is less dangerous for me to make them so than tochoose for the post from among our own islanders. Sooner or later, my daymust come; but I can put it off best by making my enemies out ofstrangers who arrive upon our island, and not out of those of my ownhousehold. All Boupari men who have been initiated know the terriblesecret--they know where lies the Death of Tu-Kila-Kila. The strangers whocome to us from the sun or the sea do not know it; and therefore my lifeis safest with them. So I make them Korong whenever I can, to prolong myown days, and to guard my secret. "

"And the Death of Tu-Kila-Kila?" the woman whispered, very low, stillsoothing his arm with her hand and patting his cheek softly from time totime with a gentle, caressing motion. "Tell me where does that live? Whoholds it in charge? Where is Tu-Kila-Kila's great spirit laid by insafety? I know it is in the tree; but where and in what part of it?"

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back with a little cry of surprise. "You know it is inthe tree!" he cried. "You know my soul is kept there! Why, Ula, who toldyou that? and you a woman! Bad medicine indeed! Some man has beenblabbing what he learned in the mysteries. If this should reach the earsof the King of the Rain--" he paused mysteriously. 

"What? What?" Ula cried, seizing his hand in hers, and pressing it hardto her bosom in her anxiety and eagerness. "Tell me the secret! Tell me!"

With a sudden sharp howl of darting pain, Tu-Kila-Kila withdrew his hand. She had squeezed the finger the parrot had bitten, and blood began oncemore to flow from it freely. 

A wild impulse of revenge came over the savage. He caught her by theneck with his other hand, pressed her throat hard, till she was black inthe face, kicked her several times with ferocious rage, and then flungher away from him to the other side of the hut with a fierce anduntranslatable native imprecation. 

Ula, shaken and hurt, darted away toward the door, with a face of abjectterror. For every reason on earth she was intensely alarmed. Were itmerely as a matter of purely earthly fear, she had ground enough forfright in having so roused the hasty anger of that powerful andimplacable creature. He would kill her and eat her with far lesscompunction than an English farmer would kill and eat one of his ownbarnyard chickens. But besides that, it terrified her not a little inmore mysterious ways to see the blood of a god falling upon the earth sofreely. She knew not what awful results to herself and her race mightfollow from so terrible a desecration. 

But, to her utter astonishment, the great god himself, mad with rage ashe was, seemed none the less almost as profoundly frightened andsurprised as she herself was. "What did you do that for?" he cried, nowsufficiently recovered for thought and speech, wringing his hand withpain, and then popping his finger hastily into his mouth to ease it. "Youare a clumsy thing. And you want to destroy me, too, with your foolishclumsiness. "

He looked at her and scowled. He was very angry. But the savage woman isnothing if not quick-witted and politic. In a flash of intuition, Ula sawat once he was more frightened than hurt; he was afraid of the effect ofthis strange revelation upon his own reputation for supreme godship. Withevery mark and gesture of deprecatory servility the woman sidled back tohis side like a whipped dog. For a second she looked down on the floorat the drops of blood; then, without one word of warning or one instant'shesitation, she bit her own finger hard till blood flowed from it freely. "I will show this to Fire and Water, " she said, holding it up before hiseyes all red and bleeding. "I will say you were angry with me and bit mefor a punishment, as you often do. They will never find out it was theblood of a god. Have no fear for their eyes. Let me look at your finger. "

Tu-Kila-Kila, half appeased by her clever quickness, held his hand outsulkily, like a disobedient child. Ula examined it close. "A bite, " shesaid, shortly. "A bite from a bird! a peck from a parrot. "

Tu-Kila-Kila jerked out a surly assent. "Yes, the Soul of all deadparrots, " he answered, with an angry glare. "It bit me this morning atthe King of the Birds'. A vicious brute. But no one else saw it. "

Ula put the finger up to her own mouth, and sucked the wound gently. Her medicine stanched it. Then she took a thin leaf of the papermulberry, soft, cool, and soothing, and bound it round the place with astrip of the lace-like inner bark, as deftly as any hospital nurse inLondon would have done it. These savage women are capital hands insickness. Tu-Kila-Kila sat and sulked meanwhile, like a disappointedchild. When Ula had finished, she nodded her head and glided softly away. She knew her chance of learning the secret was gone for the moment, andshe had too much of the guile of the savage woman to spoil her chances byloitering about unnecessarily while her lord was in his presentungracious humor. 

As she stole from the hut, Tu-Kila-Kila, looking ruefully at his woundedhand, and then at that light and supple retreating figure, mutteredsulkily to himself, with a very bad grace, "the woman knows too much. Shenearly wormed my secret out of me. She knows that Tu-Kila-Kila's life andsoul are bound up in the tree. She knows that I bled, and that the parrotbit me. If she blabs, as women will do, mischief may come of it. I am agreat god, a very great god--keen, bloodthirsty, cruel. And I like thatwoman. But it would be wiser and safer, perhaps, after all, to forego myaffection and to make a great feast of her. "

And Ula, looking back with a smile and a nod, and holding up her ownbitten and bleeding hand with a farewell shake, as if to remind herdivine husband of her promise to show it to Fire and Water, murmured lowto herself as she went, "He is a very great god; a very great god, nodoubt; but I hate him, I hate him! He would eat me to-morrow if I didn'tcoax him and wheedle him and keep him in a good temper. You want to besharp, indeed, to be the wife of a god. I got off to-day with the skin ofmy teeth. He might have turned and killed me. If only I could find outthe Great Taboo, I would tell it to the stranger, the King of the Rain;and then, perhaps, Tu-Kila-Kila would die. And the stranger would becomeTu-Kila-Kila in turn, and I would be one of his wives; and Toko, who ishis Shadow, would return again to the service of Tu-Kila-Kila's temple. "

But Fire, as she passed, was saying to Water, "We are getting tired inBoupari of Lavita, the son of Sami. If the luck of the island is not tochange, it is high time, I think, we should have a new Tu-Kila-Kila. "

CHAPTER XX. 

COUNCIL OF WAR. 

That same afternoon Muriel had a visitor. M. Jules Peyron, formerly ofthe Collége de France, no longer a mere Polynesian god, but a Frenchgentleman of the Boulevards in voice and manner, came to pay hisrespects, as in duty bound, to Mademoiselle Ellis. M. Peyron hadperformed his toilet under trying circumstances, to the best of hisability. The remnants of his European clothes, much patched and overhungwith squares of native tappa cloth, were hidden as much as possible by awide feather cloak, very savage in effect, but more seemly, at any rate, than the tattered garments in which Felix had first found him in his owngarden parterre. M. Peyron, however, was fully aware of the defects ofhis costume, and profoundly apologetic. "It is with ten thousand regrets, mademoiselle, " he said, many times over, bowing low and simpering, "thatI venture to appear in a lady's _salon_--for, after all, wherever aEuropean lady goes, there her _salon_ follows her--in such a _tenue_as that in which I am now compelled to present myself. _Mais quevoulez-vous? Nous ne sommes pas à Paris_!" For to M. Peyron, as innocentin his way as Mali herself, the whole world divided itself into Paris andthe Provinces. 

Nevertheless, it was touching to both the new-comers to see theFrenchman's delight at meeting once more with civilized beings. "Figureto yourself, mademoiselle, " he said, with true French effusion--"figureto yourself the joy and surprise with which I, this morning, receivemonsieur, your friend, at my humble cottage! For the first time afternine years on this hateful island, I see again a European face; I hearagain the sound, the beautiful sound of that charming French language. Myemotion, believe me, was too profound for words. When monsieur was gone, I retired to my hut, I sat down on the floor, I gave myself over totears, tears of joy and gratitude, to think I should once more catch aglimpse of civilization! This afternoon, I ask myself, can I ventureto go out and pay my respects, thus attired, in these rags, to a Europeanlady? For a long time I doubt, I wonder, I hesitate. In my quality ofFrenchman, I would have wished to call in civilized costume upon acivilized household. But what would you have? Necessity knows no law. Iam compelled to envelope myself in my savage robe of office as aPolynesian god--a robe of office which, for the rest, is not without aninterest of its own for the scientific ethnologist. It belongs to meespecially as King of the Birds, and in it, in effect, is representedat least one feather of each kind or color from every part of the bodyof every species of bird that inhabits Boupari. I thus sum up, _pourainsi dire_, in my official costume all the birds of the island, asTu-Kila-Kila, the very high god, sums up, in his quaint and curiousdress, the land and the sea, the trees and the stones, earth and air, andfire and water. "

Familiarity with danger begets at last a certain callous indifference. Muriel was surprised in her own mind to discover how easily they couldchat with M. Peyron on such indifferent subjects, with that awful doom ofan approaching death hanging over them so shortly. But the fact was, terrors of every kind had so encompassed them round since their arrivalon the island that the mere additional certainty of a date and mode ofexecution was rather a relief to their minds than otherwise. It partookof the nature of a reprieve, not of a sentence. Besides, this meetingwith another speaker of a European tongue seemed to them so full ofpromise and hope that they almost forgot the terrors of their threatenedend in their discussion of possible schemes for escape to freedom. EvenM. Peyron himself, who had spent nine long years of exile in the island, felt that the arrival of two new Europeans gave him some hope ofeffecting at last his own retreat from this unendurable position. Histalk was all of passing steamers. If the Australasian had come nearenough once to sight the island, he argued, then the homeward-boundvessel, _en route_ for Honolulu, must have begun to take a new courseconsiderably to the eastward of the old navigable channel. If this wereso, their obvious plan was to keep a watch, day and night, for anotherpassing Australian liner, and whenever one hove in sight, to steal awayto the shore, seize a stray canoe, overpower, if possible, their Shadows, or give them the slip, and make one bold stroke for freedom on the openocean. 

None of them could conceal from their own minds, to be sure, the extremedifficulty of carrying out this programme. In the first place, it was atoss-up whether they ever sighted another steamer at all; for during theweeks they had already passed on the island, not a sign of one hadappeared from any quarter. Then, again, even supposing a steamer everhove in sight, what likelihood that they could make out for her in anopen canoe in time to attract attention before she had passed the island?Tu-Kila-Kila would never willingly let them go; their Shadows would watchthem with unceasing care; the whole body of natives would combinetogether to prevent their departure. If they ran away at all, they mustrun for their lives; as soon as the islanders discovered they were gone, every war-canoe in the place would be manned at once with bloodthirstysavages, who would follow on their track with relentless persistence. 

As for Muriel, less prepared for such dangerous adventures than the twomen, she was rather inclined to attach a certain romantic importance (asa girl might do) to the story of the parrot and the possible disclosureswhich it could make if it could only communicate with them. Themysterious element in the history of that unique bird attracted herfancy. "The only one of its race now left alive, " she said, with slowreflectiveness. "Like Dolly Pentreath, the last old woman who could speakCornish! I wonder how long parrots ever live? Do you know at all, monsieur? You are the King of the Birds--you ought to be an authority ontheir habits and manners. "

The Frenchman smiled a gallant smile. "Unhappily, mademoiselle, " he said, "though, as a medical student, I took up to a certain extent biologicalscience in general at the Collége de France, I never paid any special orpeculiar attention in Paris to birds in particular. But it is theuniversal opinion of the natives (if that counts for much) that parrotslive to a very great age; and this one old parrot of mine, whom I callMethuselah on account of his advanced years, is considered by them all tobe a perfect patriarch. In effect, when the oldest men now living on theisland were little boys, they tell me that Methuselah was already avenerable and much-venerated parrot. He must certainly have outlived allthe rest of his race by at least the best part of three-quarters of acentury. For the islanders themselves not infrequently live, by unanimousconsent, to be over a hundred. "

"I remember to have read somewhere, " Felix said, turning it over in hismind, "that when Humboldt was travelling in the wilds of South America hefound one very old parrot in an Indian village, which, the Indiansassured him, spoke the language of an extinct tribe, incomprehensiblethen by any living person. If I recollect aright, Humboldt believed thatparticular bird must have lived to be nearly a hundred and fifty. "

"That is so, monsieur, " the Frenchman answered. "I remember the casewell, and have often recalled it. I recollect our professor mentioning itone day in the course of his lectures. And I have always mentally coupledthat parrot of Humboldt's with my own old friend and subject, Methuselah. However, that only impresses upon one more fully the folly of hoping thatwe can learn anything worth knowing from him. I have heard him recite hisstory many times over, though now he repeats it less frequently than heused formerly to do; and I feel convinced it is couched in some unknownand, no doubt, forgotten language. It is a much more guttural andunpleasant tongue than any of the soft dialects now spoken in Polynesia. It belonged, I am convinced, to that yet earlier and more savage racewhich the Polynesians must have displaced; and as such it is now, I feelcertain, practically irrecoverable. "

"If they were more savage than the Polynesians, " Muriel said, with aprofound sigh, "I'm sorry for anybody who fell into their clutches. "

"But what would not many philologists at home in England give, " Felixmurmured, philosophically, "for a transcript of the words that parrot canspeak--perhaps a last relic of the very earliest and most primitive formof human language!"

At the very moment when these things were passing under the wattled roofof Muriel's hut, it happened that on the taboo-space outside, Toko, theShadow, stood talking for a moment with Ula, the fourteenth wife of thegreat Tu-Kila-Kila. 

"I never see you now, Toko, " the beautiful Polynesian said, leaningalmost across the white line of coral-sand which she dared nottransgress. "Times are dull at the temple since you came to be Shadow tothe white-faced stranger. "

"It was for that that Tu-Kila-Kila sent me here, " the Shadow answered, with profound conviction. "He is jealous, the great god. He is bad. He iscruel. He wanted to get rid of me. So he sent me away to the King of theRain that I might not see you. "

Ula pouted, and held up her wounded finger before his eyescoquettishly. "See what he did to me, " she said, with a mute appealfor sympathy--though in that particular matter the truth was not inher. "Your god was angry with me to-day because I hurt his hand, andhe clutched me by the throat, and almost choked me. He has a bad heart. See how he bit me and drew blood. Some of these days, I believe, he willkill me and eat me. "

The Shadow glanced around him suspiciously with an uneasy air. Then hewhispered low, in a voice half grudge, half terror, "If he does, he is agreat god--he can search all the world--I fear him much, but Toko's heartis warm. Let Tu-Kila-Kila look out for vengeance. "

The woman glanced across at him open-eyed, with her enticing look. "Ifthe King of the Rain, who is Korong, knew all the secret, " she murmured, slowly, "he would soon be Tu-Kila-Kila himself; and you and I could thenmeet together freely. "

The Shadow started. It was a terrible suggestion. "You mean to say--" hecried; then fear overcame him, and, crouching down where he sat, he gazedaround him, terrified. Who could say that the wind would not report hiswords to Tu-Kila-Kila?

Ula laughed at his fears. "Pooh, " she answered, smiling. "You are a man;and yet you are afraid of a little taboo. I am a woman; and yet if I knewthe secret as you do, I would break taboo as easily as I would break anegg-shell. I would tell the white-faced stranger all--if only it wouldbring you and me together forever. "

"It is a great risk, a very great risk, " the Shadow answered, trembling. "Tu-Kila-Kila is a mighty god. He may be listening this moment, and maypinch us to death by his spirits for our words, or burn us to ashes witha flash of his anger. "

The woman smiled an incredulous smile. "If you had lived as nearTu-Kila-Kila as I have, " she answered, boldly, "you would think aslittle, perhaps, of his divinity as I do. "

For even in Polynesia, superstitious as it is, no hero is a god to hiswives or his valets. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

METHUSELAH GIVES SIGN. 

All the hopes of the three Europeans were concentrated now on the bareoff-chance of a passing steamer. M. Peyron in particular was fullyconvinced that, if the Australasian had found the inner channelpracticable, other ships in future would follow her example. With thisidea firmly fixed in his head, he arranged with Felix that one or otherof them should keep watch alternately by night as far as possible; and healso undertook that a canoe should constantly be in readiness to carrythem away to the supposititious ship, if occasion arose for it. Murieltook counsel with Mali on the question of rousing the Frenchman if asteamer appeared, and they were the first to sight it; and Mali, in whomrenewed intercourse with white people had restored to some extent thecivilized Queensland attitude of mind, readily enough promised to assistin their scheme, provided she was herself taken with them, and sorelieved from the terrible vengeance which would otherwise overtake her. "If Boupari man catch me, " she said, in her simple, graphic, Polynesianway, "Boupari man kill me, and lay me in leaves, and cook me very nice, and make great feast of me, like him do with Jani. " From that untimelyend both Felix and Muriel promised faithfully, as far as in them lay, toprotect her. 

To communicate with M. Peyron by daytime, without arousing theever-wakeful suspicion of the natives, Felix hit upon an excellent plan. He burnished his metal matchbox to the very highest polish it was capableof taking, and then heliographed by means of sun-flashes on the Morsecode. He had learned the code in Fiji in the course of his officialduties; and he taught the Frenchman now readily enough how to read andreply with the other half of the box, torn off for the purpose. 

It was three or four days, however, before the two English wanderersventured to return M. Peyron's visit. They didn't wish to attract toogreatly the attention of the islanders. Gradually, as their stay on theisland went on, they learned the truth that Tu-Kila-Kila's eyes, as hehimself had boasted, were literally everywhere. For he had spies of hisown, told off in every direction, who dogged the steps of his victimsunseen. Sometimes, as Felix and Muriel walked unsuspecting through thejungle paths, closely followed by their Shadows, a stealthy brown figure, crouched low to the ground, would cross the road for a moment behindthem, and disappear again noiselessly into the dense mass of underbrush. Then Mali or Toko, turning round, all hushed, with a terrified look, would murmur low to themselves, or to one another, "There goes one ofthe Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila!" It was only by slow degrees that this systemof espionage grew clear to the strangers; but as soon as they had learnedits reality and ubiquity, they felt at once how undesirable it would befor them to excite the terrible man-god's jealousy and suspicion by beingobserved too often in close personal intercourse with their fellow-exileand victim, the Frenchman. It was this that made them have recourse tothe device of the heliograph. 

So three or four days passed before Muriel dared to approach M. Peyron'scottage. When she did at last go there with Felix, it was in the earlymorning, before the fierce tropical sun, that beat full on the island, had begun to exert its midday force and power. The path that led therelay through the thick and tangled mass of brushwood which covered thegreater part of the island with its dense vegetation; it was overhung byhuge tree-ferns and broad-leaved Southern bushes, and abutted at last onthe little wind-swept knoll where the King of the Birds had hisappropriate dwelling-place. The Frenchman received them with studiedParisian hospitality. He had decorated his arbor with fresh flowers forthe occasion, and bright tropical fruits, with their own green leaves, did duty for the coffee or the absinthe of his fatherland on his homemaderustic table. Yet in spite of all the rudeness of the physicalsurroundings, they felt themselves at home again with this one exiledEuropean; the faint flavor of civilization pervaded and permeated theFrenchman's hut after the unmixed savagery to which they had now been solong accustomed. 

Muriel's curiosity, however, centred most about the mysterious oldparrot, of whose strange legend so much had been said to her. After theyhad sat for a little under the shade of the spreading banyan, to cooldown from their walk--for it was an oppressive morning--M. Peyron led herround to his aviary at the back of the hut, and introduced her, by theirnative names, to all his subjects. "I am responsible for their lives, " hesaid, gravely, "for their welfare, for their happiness. If I were to letone of them grow old without a successor in the field to follow him upand receive his soul--as in the case of my friend Methuselah here, whowas so neglected by my predecessors--the whole species would die out forwant of a spirit, and my own life would atone for that of my people. There you have the central principle of the theology of Boupari. Everyrace, every element, every power of nature, is summed up for them in someparticular person or thing; and on the life of that person or thingdepends, as they believe, the entire health of the species, the sequenceof events, the whole order and succession of natural phenomena. "

Felix approached the mysterious and venerable bird with somewhatincautious fingers. "It looks very old, " he said, trying to stroke itshead and neck with a friendly gesture. "You do well, indeed, in callingit Methuselah. "

As he spoke, the bird, alarmed at the vague consciousness of a hand andvoice which it did not recognize and mindful of Tu-Kila-Kila's recentattack, made a vicious peck at the fingers outstretched to caress it. "Take care!" the Frenchman cried, in a warning voice. "The patriarch'stemper is no longer what it was sixty or seventy years ago. He grows oldand peevish. His humor is soured. He will sing no longer the livelylittle scraps of Offenbach I have taught him. He does nothing but sitstill and mumble now in his own forgotten language. And he's dreadfullycross--so crabbed--_mon Dieu_, what a character! Why, the other day, as Itold you, he bit Tu-Kila-Kila himself, the high god of the island, with agood hard peck, when that savage tried to touch him; you'd have laughedto see his godship sent off bleeding to his hut with a wounded finger! Iwill confess I was by no means sorry at the sight myself. I do not lovethat god, nor he me; and I was glad when Methuselah, on whom he is afraidto revenge himself openly, gave him a nice smart bite for trying tointerfere with him. "

"He's very snappish, to be sure, " Felix said, with a smile, trying oncemore to push forward one hand to stroke the bird cautiously. ButMethuselah resented all such unauthorized intrusions. He was growing tooold to put up with strangers. He made a second vicious attempt to peck atthe hand held out to soothe him, and screamed, as he did so, in the usualdiscordant and unpleasant voice of an angry or frightened parrot. 

"Why, Felix, " Muriel put in, taking him by the arm with a girlishgesture--for even the terrors by which they were surrounded hadn't whollysucceeded in killing out the woman within her--"how clumsy you are! Youdon't understand one bit how to manage parrots. I had a parrot of my ownat my aunt's in Australia, and I know their ways and all about them. Justlet me try him. " She held out her soft white hand toward the sulky birdwith a fearless, caressing gesture. "Pretty Poll, pretty Poll!" she said, in English, in the conventional tone of address to their kind. "Did thenaughty man go and frighten her then? Was she afraid of his hand? DidPolly want a lump of sugar?"

On a sudden the bird opened its eyes quickly with an awakened air, andlooked her back in the face, half blindly, half quizzingly. It preenedits wings for a second, and crooned with pleasure. Then it put forwardits neck, with its head on one side, took her dainty finger gentlybetween its beak and tongue, bit it for pure love with a soft, shortpressure, and at once allowed her to stroke its back and sides with avery pleased and surprised expression. The success of her skill flatteredMuriel. "There! it knows me!" she cried, with childish delight; "itunderstands I'm a friend! It takes to me at once! Pretty Poll! PrettyPoll! Come, Poll, come and kiss me!"

The bird drew back at the words, and steadied itself for a momentknowingly on its perch. Then it held up its head, gazed around it with avacant air, as if suddenly awakened from a very long sleep, and, openingits mouth, exclaimed in loud, clear, sharp, and distinct tones--and inEnglish--"Pretty Poll! Pretty Poll! Polly wants a buss! Polly wants anice sweet bit of apple!"

For a moment M. Peyron couldn't imagine what had happened. Felix lookedat Muriel. Muriel looked at Felix. The Englishman held out both his handsto her in a wild fervor of surprise. Muriel took them in her own, andlooked deep into his eyes, while tears rose suddenly and dropped down hercheeks, one by one, unchecked. They couldn't say why, themselves; theydidn't know wherefore; yet this unexpected echo of their own tongue, inthe mouth of that strange and mysterious bird, thrilled through theminstinctively with a strange, unearthly tremor. In some dim andunexplained way, they felt half unconsciously to themselves that thisdiscovery was, perhaps, the first clue to the solution of the terriblesecret whose meshes encompassed them. 

M. Peyron looked on in mute astonishment. He had heard the bird repeatthat strange jargon so often that it had ceased to have even thepossibility of a meaning for him. It was the way of Methuselah--just hislanguage that he talked; so harsh! so guttural! "Pretty Poll! PrettyPoll!" he had noticed the bird harp upon those quaint words again andagain. They were part, no doubt, of that old primitive and forgottenPacific language the creature had learned in other days from some earlierbearer of the name and ghastly honors of Tu-Kila-Kila. Why should theseEnglish seem so profoundly moved by them?

"Mademoiselle doesn't surely understand the barbarous dialect which ourMethuselah speaks!" he exclaimed in surprise, glancing half suspiciouslyfrom one to the other of these incomprehensible Britons. Like most otherFrenchmen, he had been brought up in total ignorance of every Europeanlanguage except his own; and the words the parrot pronounced, whendelivered with the well-known additions of parrot harshness and parrotvolubility, seemed to him so inexpressibly barbaric in their clicks andjerks that he hadn't yet arrived at the faintest inkling of the truth ashe observed their emotion. 

Felix seized his new friend's hand in his and wrung it warmly. "Don't yousee what it is?" he exclaimed, half beside himself with this vague hopeof some unknown solution. "Don't you realize how the thing stands?Don't you guess the truth? This isn't a Polynesian, dialect at all. It'sour own mother tongue. The bird speaks English!"

"English!" M. Peyron replied, with incredulous scorn. "What! Methuselahspeak English! Oh, no, monsieur, impossible. _Vous vous trompez, j'ensuis sûr_. I can never believe it. Those harsh, inarticulate sounds tobelong to the noble language of Shaxper and Newtowne! _Ah, monsieur, incroyable! vous vous trompez; vous vous trompez!_"

As he spoke, the bird put its head on one side once more, and, lookingout of its half-blind old eyes with a crafty glance round the corner atMuriel, observed again, in not very polite English, "Pretty Poll! PrettyPoll! Polly wants some fruit! Polly wants a nut! Polly wants to go tobed!. . . God save the king! To hell with all papists!"

"Monsieur, " Felix said, a certain solemn feeling of surprise coming overhim slowly at this last strange clause, "it is perfectly true. The birdspeaks English. The bird that knows the secret of which we are all insearch--the bird that can tell us the truth about Tu-Kila-Kila--can tellus in the tongue which mademoiselle and I speak as our native language. And what is more--and more strange--gather from his tone and the tenor ofhis remarks, he was taught, long since--a century ago, or more--and by anEnglish sailor!"

Muriel held out a bit of banana on a sharp stick to the bird. Methuselah-Polly took it gingerly off the end, like a well-behavedparrot? "God save the king!" Muriel said, in a quiet voice, trying todraw him on to speak a little further. 

Methuselah twisted his eye sideways, first this way, then that, andresponded in a very clear tone, indeed, "God save the king! Confound theDuke of York! Long live Dr. Oates! And to hell with all papists!"

CHAPTER XXII. 

TANTALIZING, VERY. 

They looked at one another again with a wild surmise. The voice was asthe voice of some long past age. Could the parrot be speaking to them inthe words of seventeenth-century English?

Even M. Peyron, who at first had received the strange discovery withincredulity, woke up before long to the importance of this sudden andunexpected revelation. The Tu-Kila-Kila who had taught Methuselah thatlong poem or sermon, which native tradition regarded as containing thecentral secret of their creed or its mysteries, and which the cruel andcunning Tu-Kila-Kila of to-day believed to be of immense importance tohis safety--that Tu-Kila-Kila of other days was, in all probability, noother than an English sailor. Cast on these shores, perhaps, as theythemselves had been, by the mercy of the waves, he had managed to masterthe language and religion of the savages among whom he found himselfthrown; he had risen to be the representative of the cannibal god; and, during long months or years of tedious exile, he had beguiled his leisureby imparting to the unconscious ears of a bird the weird secret of hissuccess, for the benefit of any others of his own race who might besimilarly treated by fortune in future. Strange and romantic as it allsounded, they could hardly doubt now that this was the real explanationof the bird's command of English words. One problem alone remained todisturb their souls. Was the bird really in possession of any localsecret and mystery at all, or was this the whole burden of the message hehad brought down across the vast abyss of time--"God save the king, andto hell with all papists?"

Felix turned to M. Peyron in a perfect tumult of suspense. "What herecites is long?" he said, interrogatively, with profound interest. "Youhave heard him say much more than this at times? The words he has justuttered are not those of the sermon or poem you mentioned?"

M. Peyron opened his hands expansively before him. "Oh, _mon Dieu_, no, monsieur, " he answered, with effusion. "You should hear him recite it. He's never done. It is whole chapters--whole chapters; a perfect Henriadein parrot-talk. When once he begins, there's no possibility of checkingor stopping him. On, on he goes. Farewell to the rest; he insists onpouring it all forth to the very last sentence. Gabble, gabble, gabble;chatter, chatter, chatter; pouf, pouf, pouf; boum, boum, boum; he runsahead eternally in one long discordant sing-song monotone. The person whotaught him must have taken entire months to teach him, a phrase at atime, paragraph by paragraph. It is wonderful a bird's memory could holdso much. But till now, taking it for granted he spoke only some wildSouth Pacific dialect, I never paid much attention to Methuselah'svagaries. "

"Hush. He's going to speak, " Muriel cried, holding up, in alarm, onewarning finger. 

And the bird, his tongue-strings evidently loosened by the strangerecurrence after so many years of those familiar English sounds, "PrettyPoll! Pretty Poll!" opened his mouth again in a loud chuckle of delight, and cried, with persistent shrillness, "God save the king! A fig forall arrant knaves and roundheads!"

A creepier feeling than ever came over the two English listeners at thoseastounding words. "Great heavens!" Felix exclaimed to the unsuspectingFrenchman, "he speaks in the style of the Stuarts and the Commonwealth!"

The Frenchman started. "_Époque Louis Quatorze_!" he murmured, translating the date mentally into his own more familiar chronology. "Twocenturies since! Oh, incredible! incredible! Methuselah is old, but notquite so much of a patriarch as that. Even Humboldt's parrot could hardlyhave lived for two hundred years in the wilds of South America. "

Felix regarded the venerable creature with a look of almost superstitiousawe. "Facts are facts, " he answered shortly, shutting his mouth with alittle snap. "Unless this bird has been deliberately taught historicaldetails in an archaic diction--and a shipwrecked sailor is hardly likelyto be antiquarian enough to conceive such an idea--he is undoubtedly asurvival from the days of the Commonwealth or the Restoration. And yousay he runs on with his tale for an hour at a time! Good heavens, whata thought! I wish we could manage to start him now. Does he begin itoften?"

"Monsieur, " the Frenchman answered, "when I came here first, thoughMethuselah was already very old and feeble, he was not quite a dotard, and he used to recite it all every morning regularly. That was the hour, I suppose, at which the master, who first taught him this lengthyrecitation, used originally to impress it upon him. In those days hissight and his memory were far more clear than now. But by degrees, sincemy arrival, he has grown dull and stupid. The natives tell me that fiftyyears ago, while he was already old, he was still bright and lively, andwould recite the whole poem whenever anybody presented him with hisgreatest dainty, the claw of a moora-crab. Nowadays, however, when he canhardly eat, and hardly mumble, he is much less persistent and lesscoherent than formerly. To say the truth, I have discouraged him in hisefforts, because his pertinacity annoyed me. So now he seldom getsthrough all his lesson at one bout, as he used to do at the beginning. The best way to get him on is for me to sing him one of my French songs. That seems to excite him, or to rouse him to rivalry. Then he will puthis head on one side, listen critically for a while, smile a superiorsmile, and finally begin--jabber, jabber, jabber--trying to talk me down, as if I were a brother parrot. "

"Oh, do sing now!" Muriel cried, with intense persuasion in her voice. "I do so want to hear it. " She meant, of course, the parrot's story. 

But the Frenchman bowed, and laid his hand on his heart. "Ah, mademoiselle, " he said, "your wish is almost a royal command. And yet, doyou know, it is so long since I have sung, except to please myself--mymusic is so rusty, old pieces you have heard--I have no accompaniment, no score--_mais enfin_, we are all so far from Paris!"

Muriel didn't dare to undeceive him as to her meaning, lest he shouldrefuse to sing in real earnest, and the chance of learning the parrot'ssecret might slip by them irretrievably. "Oh, monsieur, " she cried, fitting herself to his humor at once, and speaking as ceremoniously as ifshe were assisting at a musical party in the Avenue Victor Hugo, "don'tdecline, I beg of you, on those accounts. We are both most anxious tohear your song. Don't disappoint us, pray. Please begin immediately. "

"Ah, mademoiselle, " the Frenchman said, "who could resist such an appeal?You are altogether too flattering. " And then, in the same cheery voicethat Felix had heard on the first day he visited the King of Birds' hut, M. Peyron began, in very decent style, to pour forth the merry sounds ofhis rollicking song:

"Quand on conspi-re, Quand sans frayeur On peut se di-re Conspirateur-- Pour tout le mon-de Il faut avoir Perruque blon-de Et collet noir. "

He had hardly got as far as the end of the first stanza, however, whenMethuselah, listening, with his ear cocked up most knowingly, to theFrenchman's song, raised his head in opposition, and, sitting boltupright on his perch, began to scream forth a voluble stream of words inone unbroken flood, so fast that Muriel could hardly follow them. Thebird spoke in a thick and very harsh voice, and, what was more remarkablestill, with a distinct and extremely peculiar North Country accent. "Inthe nineteenth year of the reign of his most gracious majesty, KingCharles the Second, " he blurted out, viciously, with an angry look at theFrenchman, "I, Nathaniel Cross, of the borough of Sunderland, in thecounty of Doorham, in England, an able-bodied mariner, then sailing theSouth Seas in the good bark Martyr Prince, of the Port of Great Grimsby, whereof one Thomas Wells, gent. , under God, was master--"

"Oh, hush, hush!" Muriel cried, unable to catch the parrot's preciouswords through the emulous echo of the Frenchman's music. "Whereof oneThomas Wells, gent. , under God, was master--go on, Polly. "

"Perruque blonde Et collet noir, "

the Frenchman repeated, with a half-offended voice, finishing his stanza. 

But just as he stopped, Methuselah stopped too, and, throwing back hishead in the air with a triumphant look, stared hard at his vanquished andsilenced opponent out of those blinking gray eyes of his. "I thought I'dbe too much for you!" he seemed to say, wrathfully. 

"Whereof one Thomas Wells, gent. , under God, was master, " Murielsuggested again, all agog with excitement. "Go on, good bird! Go on, pretty Polly. "

But Methuselah was evidently put off the scent now by the unseasonableinterruption. Instead of continuing, he threw back his head a second timewith a triumphant air and laughed aloud boisterously. "Pretty Polly, " hecried. "Pretty Polly wants a nut. Tu-Kila-Kila maroo! Pretty Poll! PrettyPolly!"

"Sing again, for Heaven's sake!" Felix exclaimed, in a profoundlyagitated mood, explaining briefly to the Frenchman the full significanceof the words Methuselah had just begun to utter. 

The Frenchman struck up his tune afresh to give the bird a start; but allto no avail. Methuselah was evidently in no humor for talking just then. He listened with a callous, uncritical air, bringing his white eyelidsdown slowly and sleepily over his bleared gray eyes. Then he nodded hishead slowly. "No use, " the Frenchman murmured, pursing his lips upgravely. "The bird won't talk. It's going off to sleep now. Methuselahgets visibly older every day, monsieur and mademoiselle. You are onlyjust in time to catch his last accents. "

CHAPTER XXIII. 

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD. 

Early next morning, as Felix lay still in his hut, dozing, and justvaguely conscious of a buzz of a mosquito close to his ear, he wasaroused by a sudden loud cry outside--a cry that called his native namethree times, running: "O King of the Rain, King of the Rain, King of theRain, awake! High time to be up! The King of the Birds sends you healthand greeting!"

Felix rose at once; and his Shadow, rising before him, and unbolting theloose wooden fastener of the door, went out in haste to see who calledbeyond the white taboo-line of their sacred precincts. 

A native woman, tall, lithe, and handsome, stood there in the full lightof morning, beckoning. A strange glow of hatred gleamed in her large grayeyes. Her shapely brown bosom heaved and panted heavily. Big beadsglistened moistly on her smooth, high brow. It was clear she had run allthe way in haste. She was deeply excited and full of eager anxiety. 

"Why, what do you want here so early, Ula?" the Shadow asked, insurprise--for it was indeed she. "How have you slipped away, as soon asthe sun is risen, from the sacred hut of Tu-Kila-Kila?"

Ula's gray eyes flashed angry fire as she answered. "He has beaten meagain, " she cried, in revengeful tones; "see the weals on my back! See myarms and shoulders! He has drawn blood from my wounds. He is the mosthateful of gods. I should love to kill him. Therefore I slipped away fromhim with the early dawn and came to consult with his enemy, the King ofthe Birds, because I heard the words that the Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, whopervade the world, report to their master. The Eyes have told him thatthe King of the Rain, the Queen of the Clouds, and the King of the Birdsare plotting together in secret against Tu-Kila-Kila. When I heard that, I was glad; I went to the King of the Birds to warn him of his danger;and the King of the Birds, concerned for your safety, has sent me inhaste to ask his brother gods to go at once to him. "

In a minute Felix was up and had called out Mali from the neighboringhut. "Tell Missy Queenie, " he cried, "to come with me to see theman-a-oui-oui! The man-a-oui-oui has sent me for us to come. She mustmake great haste. He wants us immediately. "

With a word and a sign to Toko, Ula glided away stealthily, with thecat-like tread of the native Polynesian woman, back to her hated husband. 

Felix went out to the door and heliographed with his bright metal plate, turned on the Frenchman's hill, "What is it?"

In a moment the answer flashed back, word by word, "Come quick, if youwant to hear. Methuselah is reciting!"

A few seconds later Muriel emerged from her hut, and the two Europeans, closely followed, as always, by their inseparable Shadows, took thewinding side-path that led through the jungle by a devious way, avoidingthe front of Tu-Kila-Kila's temple, to the Frenchman's cottage. 

They found M. Peyron very much excited, partly by Ula's news ofTu-Kila-Kila's attitude, but more still by Methuselah's agitatedcondition. "The whole night through, my dear friends, " he cried, seizingtheir hands, "that bird has been chattering, chattering, chattering. _Oh, mon Dieu, quel oiseau!_ It seems as though the words heard yesterday frommademoiselle had struck some lost chord in the creature's memory. But heis also very feeble. I can see that well. His garrulity is the garrulityof old age in its last flickering moments. He mumbles and mutters. He chuckles to himself. If you don't hear his message now and at once, it's my solemn conviction you will never hear it. "

He led them out to the aviary, where Methuselah, in effect, was sittingon his perch, most tremulous and woebegone. His feathers shudderedvisibly; he could no longer preen himself. "Listen to what he says, " theFrenchman exclaimed, in a very serious voice. "It is your last, lastchance. If the secret is ever to be unravelled at all, by Methuselah'said, now is, without doubt, the proper moment to unravel it. "

Muriel put out her hand and stroked the bird gently. "Pretty Poll, " shesaid, soothingly, in a sympathetic voice. "Pretty Poll! Poor Poll! Was heill! Was he suffering?"

At the sound of those familiar words, unheard so long till yesterday, theparrot took her finger in his beak once more, and bit it with thetenderness of his kind in their softer moments. Then he threw back hishead with a sort of mechanical twist, and screamed out at the top of hisvoice, for the last time on earth, his mysterious message:

"Pretty Poll! Pretty Poll! God save the king! Confound the Duke of York!Death to all arrant knaves and roundheads!

"In the nineteenth year of the reign of his most gracious majesty, KingCharles the Second, I, Nathaniel Cross, of the borough of Sunderland, inthe county of Doorham, in England, an able-bodied mariner, then sailingthe South Seas in the good bark Martyr Prince, of the Port of GreatGrimsby, whereof one Thomas Wells, gent. , under God, was master, was, bystress of weather, wrecked and cast away on the shores of this island, called by its gentile inhabitants by the name of Boo Parry. In whichwreck, as it befell, Thomas Wells, gent. , and his equipment were, bydivine disposition, killed and drowned, save and except three mariners, whereof I am one, who in God's good providence swam safely through anexceeding great flood of waves and landed at last on this island. Theremy two companions, Owen Williams, of Swansea, in the parts of Wales, andLewis le Pickard, a French Hewgenott refugee, were at once, by the saidgentiles, cruelly entreated, and after great torture cooked and eaten atthe temple of their chief god, Too-Keela-Keela. But I, myself, havingthrough God's grace found favor in their eyes, was promoted to the postwhich in their speech is called Korong, the nature of which this bird, mymouthpiece, will hereafter, to your ears, more fully discover. "

Having said so much, in a very jerky way, Methuselah paused, and blinkedhis eyes wearily. 

"What does he say?" the Frenchman began, eager to know the truth. ButFelix, fearful lest any interruption might break the thread of the bird'sdiscourse and cheat them of the sequel, held up a warning finger, andthen laid it on his lips in mute injunction. Methuselah threw back hishead at that and laughed aloud. "God save the king!" he cried again, in astill feebler way, "and to hell with all papists!"

It was strange how they all hung on the words of that unconsciousmessenger from a dead and gone age, who himself knew nothing of theimport of the words he was uttering. Methuselah laughed at theirearnestness, shook his head once or twice, and seemed to think tohimself. Then he remembered afresh the point he had broken off at. 

"More fully discover. For seven years have I now lived on this island, never having seen or h'ard Christian face or voice; and at the end ofthat time, feeling my health feail, and being apprehensive lest any of myfellow-countrymen should hereafter suffer the same fate as I have done, Ibegan to teach this parrot his message, a few words at a time, impressingit duly and fully on his memory. 

"Larn, then, O wayfarer, that the people of Boo Parry are most arrantgentiles, heathens, and carribals. And this, as I discover, is the natureand method of their vile faith. They hold that the gods are each andseveral incarnate in some one particular human being. This human beingthey worship and reverence with all ghostly respect as his incarnation. And chiefly, above all, do they revere the great god Too-Keela-Keela, whose representative (may the Lord in Heaven forgive me for the same) Imyself am at this present speaking. Having thus, for my sins, attained tothat impious honor. 

"God save the king! Confound the Duke of York! To hell with all papists!

"It is the fashion of this people to hold that their gods must always bestrong and lusty. For they argue to themselves thus: that the continuanceof the rain must needs depend upon the vigor and subtlety of its Soul, the rain-god. So the continuance and fruitfulness of the trees and plantswhich yield them food must needs depend upon the health of the tree-god. And the life of the world, and the light of the sun, and the well-beingof all things that in them are, must depend upon the strength and cunningof the high god of all, Too-Keela-Keela. Hence they take great care andwoorship of their gods, surrounding them with many rules which they callTaboo, and restricting them as to what they shall eat, and what drink, and wherewithal they shall seemly clothe themselves. For they think thatif the King of the Rain at' anything that might cause the colick, or likehumor or distemper, the weather will thereafter be stormy andtempestuous; but so long as the King of the Rain fares well and retainshis health, so long will the weather over their island of Boo Parry beclear and prosperous. 

"Furthermore, as I have larned from their theologians, being myself, indeed, the greatest of their gods, it is evident that they may not letany god die, lest that department of nature over which he presidethshould wither away and feail, as it were, with him. But reasonably nocare that mortal man can exercise will prevent the possibility of theirgod--seeing he is but one of themselves--growing old and feeble and dyingat last. To prevent which calamity, these gentile folk have invented (asI believe by the aid and device of Sathan) this horrid and most unnaturalpractice. The man-god must be killed so soon as he showeth in body ormind that his native powers are beginning to feail. And it is necessarythat he be killed, according to their faith, in this ensuing fashion. 

"If the man-god were to die slowly by a death in the course of nature, the ways of the world might be stopped altogether. Hence these savagescatch the soul of their god, as it were, ere it grow old and feeble, andtransfer it betimes, by a magic device, to a suitable successor. Andsurely, they say, this suitable successor can be none other than him thatis able to take it from him. This, then, is their horrid counsel anddevice--that each one of their gods should kill his antecessor. In doingthus, he taketh the old god's life and soul, which thereupon migrates anddwells within him. And by this tenure--may Heaven be merciful to me, asinner--do I, Nathaniel Cross, of the county of Doorham, now hold thisdignity of Too-Keela-Keela, having slain, therefor, in just quarrel, myantecessor in the high godship. "

As he reached these words Methuselah paused, and choked in his throatslightly. The mere mechanical effort of continuing the speech he hadlearned by heart two hundred years before, and repeated so often sincethat it had become part of his being, was now almost too much for him. The Frenchman was right. They were only just in time. A few days later, and the secret would have died with the bird that preserved it. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

AN UNFINISHED TALE. 

For a minute or two Methuselah mumbled inarticulately to himself. Then, to their intense discomfiture, he began once more: "In the nineteenthyear of the reign of his most gracious majesty, King Charles the Second, I, Nathaniel Cross--"

"Oh, this will never do, " Felix cried. "We haven't got yet to the secretat all. Muriel, do try to set him right. He must waste no breath. Wecan't afford now to let him go all over it. "

Muriel stretched out her hand and soothed the bird gently as before. "Having slain, therefore, my predecessor in the high godship, " shesuggested, in the same singsong voice as the parrot's. 

To her immense relief, Methuselah took the hint with charming docility. 

"In the high godship, " he went on, mechanically, where he had stopped. "And this here is the manner whereby I obtained it. The Too-Keela-Keelafrom time to time doth generally appoint any castaway stranger that comesto the island to the post of Korong--that is to say, an annual god orvictim. For, as the year doth renew itself at each change of seasons, sodo these carribals in their gentilisme believe and hold that the gods ofthe seasons--to wit, the King of the Rain, the Queen of the Clouds, theLord of Green Leaves, the King of Fruits, and others--must needs besleain and renewed at the diverse solstices. Now, it so happened that I, on my arrival in the island, was appointed Korong, and promoted to thepost of King of the Rain, having a native woman assigned me as Queen ofthe Clouds, with whom I might keep company. This woman being, after herkind, enamored of me, and anxious to escape her own fate, to be sleain bymy side, did betray to me that secret which they call in their tongue theGreat Taboo, and which had been betrayed to herself in turn by a nativeman, her former lover. For the men are instructed in these things in themysteries when they coom of age, but not the women. 

"And the Great Taboo is this: No man can becoom a Too-Keela-Keela unlesshe first sleay the man in whom the high god is incarnate for the moment. But in order that he may sleay him, he must also himself be a fullKorong, only those persons who are already gods being capable for thehighest post in their hierarchy; even as with ourselves, none but he thatis a deacon may become a priest, and none but he that is a priest may bemade a bishop. For this reason, then, the Too-Keela-Keela prefers toadvance a stranger to the post of Korong, seeing that such a person willnot have been initiated in the mysteries of the island, and thereforewill not be aware of those sundry steps which must needs be taken of himthat would inherit the godship. 

"Furthermore, even a Korong can only obtain the highest rank ofToo-Keela-Keela if he order all things according to the forms andceremonies of the Taboo parfectly. For these gentiles are very careful ofthe levitical parts of their religion, deriving the same, as it seems tome, from the polity of the Hebrews, the fame of whose tabernacle mustsure have gone forth through the ends of the woorld, and the knowledge ofwhose temple must have been yet more wide dispersed by Solomon, hisships, when they came into these parts to fetch gold from Ophir. And theceremony is, that before any man may sleay the 'arthly tenement ofToo-Keela-Keela and inherit his soul, which is in very truth, as they dothink the god himself, he must needs fight with the person in whomToo-Keela-Keela doth then dwell, and for this reason: If the holder ofthe soul can defend himself in fight, then it is clear that his strengthis not one whit decayed, nor is his vigor feailing; nor yet has hisassailant been able to take his soul from him. But if the Korong in openfight do sleay the person in whom Too-Keela-Keela dwells, he becometh atonce a Too-Keela-Keela himself--that is to say, in their tongue, the Lordof Lords, because he hath taken the life of him that preceded him. 

"Yet so intricate is the theology and practice of these loathsomesavages, that not even now have I explained it in full to you, Oshipwrecked mariner, for your aid and protection. For a Korong, though itbe a part of his privilege to contend, if he will, with Too-Keela-Keelafor the high godship and princedom of this isle, may only do so atcertain appointed times, places, and seasons. Above all things, it isnecessary that he should first find out the hiding-place of the soul ofToo-Keela-Keela. For though the Too-Keela-Keela for the time that is, beanimated by the god, yet, for greater security, he doth not keep his soulin his own body, but, being above all things the god of fruitfulness andgeneration, who causes women to bear children, and the plant called taroto bring forth its increase, he keepeth his soul in the great sacred treebehind his temple, which is thus the Father of All Trees, and thechiefest abode of the great god Too-Keela-Keela. 

"Nor does Too-Keela-Keela's soul abide equally in every part of thisaforesaid tree; but in a certain bough of it, resembling a mistletoe, which hath yellow leaves, and, being broken off, groweth ever green andyellow afresh; which is the central mystery of all their Sathanicreligion. For in this very bough--easy to be discerned by the eye amongthe green leaves of the tree--" the bird paused and faltered. 

Muriel leaned forward in an agony of excitement. "Among the green leavesof the tree--" she went on soothing him. 

Her voice seemed to give the parrot a fresh impulse to speak. "--Iscontained, as it were, " he continued, feebly, "the divine essence itself, the soul and life of Too-Keela-Keela. Whoever, then, being a full Korong, breaks this off, hath thus possessed himself of the very god in person. This, however, he must do by exceeding stealth; for Too-Keela-Keela, or rather the man that bears that name, being the guardian and defenderof the great god, walks ever up and down, by day and by night, inexceeding great cunning, armed with a spear and with a hatchet of stone, around the root of the tree, watching jealously over the branch which is, as he believes, his own soul and being. I, therefore, being warned of theTaboo by the woman that was my consort, did craftily, near the appointedtime for my own death, creep out of my hut, and my consort, havinginduced one of the wives of Too-Keela-Keela to make him drunken with toomuch of that intoxicating drink which they do call kava, did proceed--didproceed--did proceed--In the nineteenth year of the reign of his mostgracious majesty, King Charles the Second--"

Muriel bent forward once more in an agony of suspense. "Oh, go on, goodPoll!" she cried. "Go on. Remember it. Did proceed to--"

The single syllable helped Methuselah's memory. "--Did proceed tostealthily pluck the bough, and, having shown the same to Fire and Water, the guardians of the Taboo, did boldly challenge to single combat thebodily tenement of the god, with spear and hatchet, provided for me inaccordance with ancient custom by Fire and Water. In which combat, Heaven mercifully befriending me against my enemy, I did coom outconqueror; and was thereupon proclaimed Too-Keela-Keela myself, withceremonies too many and barbarous to mention, lest I raise your gorge atthem. But that which is most important to tell you for your own guidanceand safety, O mariner, is this--that being the sole and only end I havein imparting this history to so strange a messenger--that after you haveby craft plucked the sacred branch, and by force of arms over-cootnToo-Keela-Keela, it is by all means needful, whether you will or not, that submitting to the hateful and gentile custom of this people--of thispeople--Pretty Poll! Pretty Poll! God save--God save the king! Deathto the nineteenth year of the reign of all arrant knaves and roundheads. "

He dropped his head on his breast, and blinked his white eyelids morefeebly than ever. His strength was failing him fast. The Soul of all deadparrots was wearing out. M. Peyron, who had stood by all this time, notknowing in any way what might be the value of the bird's disclosures, came forward and stroked poor Methuselah with his caressing hand. ButMethuselah was incapable now of any further effort. He opened his blindeyes sleepily for the last, last time, and stared around him with a blankstare at the fading universe. "God save the king!" he screamed aloud witha terrible gasp, true to his colors still. "God save the king, and tohell with all papists!"

Then he fell off his perch, stone dead, on the ground. They were never tohear the conclusion of that strange, quaint message from a forgotten ageto our more sceptical century. 

Felix looked at Muriel, and Muriel looked at Felix. They could hardlycontain themselves with awe and surprise. The parrot's words were sohuman, its speech was so real to them, that they felt as though theEnglish Tu-Kila-Kila of two hundred years back had really and trulybeen speaking to them from that perch; it was a human creature indeedthat lay dead before them. Felix raised the warm body from the groundwith positive reverence. "We will bury it decently, " he said in French, turning to M. Peyron. "He was a plucky bird, indeed, and he has carriedout his master's intentions nobly. "

As they spoke, a little rustling in the jungle hard by attracted theirattention. Felix turned to look. A stealthy brown figure glided away insilence through the tangled brushwood. M. Peyron started. "We areobserved, monsieur, " he said. "We must look out for squalls! It is oneof the Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila!"

"Let him do his worst!" Felix answered. "We know his secret now, and canprotect ourselves against him. Let us return to the shade, monsieur, andtalk this all over. Methuselah has indeed given us something to-day veryserious to think about. "

CHAPTER XXV. 

TU-KILA-KILA STRIKES. 

And yet, when all was said and done, knowledge of Tu-Kila-Kila's secretdidn't seem to bring Felix and Muriel much nearer a solution of their owngreat problems than they had been from the beginning. In spite of allMethuselah had told them, they were as far off as ever from securingtheir escape, or even from the chance of sighting an English steamer. 

This last was still the main hope and expectation of all three Europeans. M. Peyron, who was a bit of a mathematician, had accurately calculatedthe time, from what Felix told him, when the Australasian would passagain on her next homeward voyage; and, when that time arrived, it wastheir united intention to watch night and day for the faintest glimmerof her lights, or the faintest wreath of her smoke on the far easternhorizon. They had ventured to confide their design to all three oftheir Shadows; and the Shadows, attached by the kindness to which theywere so little accustomed among their own people, had in every caseagreed to assist them with the canoe, if occasion served them. So for atime the two doomed victims subsided into their accustomed calm ofmingled hope and despair, waiting patiently for the expected arrival ofthe much-longed-for Australasian. 

If she took that course once, why not a second time? And if ever she hovein sight, might they not hope, after all, to signal to her with theirrudely constructed heliograph, and stop her?

As for Methuselah's secret, there was only one way, Felix thought, inwhich it could now prove of any use to them. When the actual day of theirdoom drew nigh, he might, perhaps, be tempted to try the fate whichNathaniel Cross, of Sunderland, had successfully courted. That might gainthem at least a little respite. Though even so he hardly knew what goodit could do him to be elevated for a while into the chief god of theisland. It might not even avail him to save Muriel's life; for he did notdoubt that when the awful day itself had actually come the natives woulddo their best to kill her in spite of him, unless he anticipated them byfulfilling his own terrible, yet merciful, promise. 

Week after week went by--month after month passed--and the date when theAustralasian might reasonably be expected to reappear drew nearer andnearer. They waited and trembled. At last, a few days before the timeM. Peyron had calculated, as Felix was sitting under the big shady treein his garden one morning, while Muriel, now worn out with hope deferred, lay within her hut alone with Mali, a sound of tom-toms and beaten palmswas heard on the hill-path. The natives around fell on their faces orfled. It announced the speedy approach of Tu-Kila-Kila. 

By this time both the castaways had grown comparatively accustomed tothat hideous noise, and to the hateful presence which it preceded andheralded. A dozen temple attendants tripped on either side down thehillpath, to guard him, clapping their hands in a barbaric measure asthey went; Fire and Water, in the midst, supported and flanked the divineumbrella. Felix rose from his seat with very little ceremony, indeed, asthe great god crossed the white taboo-line of his precincts, followedonly beyond the limit by Fire and Water. 

Tu-Kila-Kila was in his most insolent vein. He glanced around with ahorrid light of triumph dancing visibly in his eyes. It was clear he hadcome, intent upon some grand theatrical _coup_. He meant to take thewhite-faced stranger by surprise this time. "Good-morning, O King of theRain, " he exclaimed, in a loud voice and with boisterous familiarity. "How do you like your outlook now? Things are getting on. Things aregetting on. The end of your rule is drawing very near, isn't it? Beforelong I must make the seasons change. I must make my sun turn. I musttwist round my sky. And then, I shall need a new Korong instead of you, Opale-faced one!"

Felix looked back at him without moving a muscle. 

"I am well, " he answered shortly, restraining his anger. "The year turnsround whether you will or not. You are right that the sun will soon beginto move southward on its path again. But many things may happen to all ofus meanwhile. _I_ am not afraid of you. "

As he spoke, he drew his knife, and opened the blade, unostentatiously, but firmly. If the worst were really coming now, sooner than he expected, he would at least not forget his promise to Muriel. 

Tu-Kila-Kila smiled a hateful and ominous smile. "I am a great god, " hesaid, calmly, striking an attitude as was his wont. "Hear how my peopleclap their hands in my honor! I order all things. I dispose the course ofnature in heaven and earth. If I look at a cocoa-nut tree, it dies; if Iglance at a bread-fruit, it withers away. We will see before long whetheror not you are afraid of me. Meanwhile, O Korong, I have come to claim mydues at your hands. Prepare for your fate. To-morrow the Queen of theClouds must be sealed my bride. Fetch her out, that I may speak with her. I have come to tell her so. "

It was a thunderbolt from a clear sky, and it fell with terrible effecton Felix. For a moment the knife trembled in his grasp with an almostirresistible impulse. He could hardly restrain himself, as he heard thosehorrible, incredible words, and saw the loathsome smirk on the speaker'sface by which they were accompanied, from leaping then and there at thesavage's throat, and plunging his blade to the haft into the vilecreature's body. But by a violent effort he mastered his indignation andwrath for the present. Planting himself full in front of Tu-Kila-Kila, and blocking the way to the door of that sacred English girl's hut--oh, how horrible it was to him even to think of her purity being contaminatedby the vile neighborhood, for one minute, of that loathsome monster! Helooked full into the wretch's face, and answered very distinctly, in low, slow tones, "If you dare to take one step toward the place where thatlady now rests, if you dare to move your foot one inch nearer, if youdare to ask to see her face again, I will plunge the knife hilt-deep intoyour vile heart, and kill you where you stand without one second'sdeliberation. Now you hear my words and you know what I mean. My weaponis keener and fiercer than any you Polynesians ever saw. Repeat thosewords once more, and by all that's true and holy, before they're out ofyour mouth I leap upon you and stab you. "

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back in sudden surprise. He was unaccustomed to be sobearded in his own sacred island. "Well, I shall claim her to-morrow, " hefaltered out, taken aback by Felix's unexpected energy. He paused for asecond, then he went on more slowly: "To-morrow I will come with all mypeople to claim my bride. This afternoon they will bring her mats ofgrass and necklets of nautilus shell to deck her for her wedding, asbecomes Tu-Kila-Kila's chosen one. The young maids of Boupari will adornher for her lord, in the accustomed dress of Tu-Kila-Kila's wives. Theywill clap their hands; they will sing the marriage song. Then early inthe morning I will come to fetch her--and woe to him who strives toprevent me!"

Felix looked at him long, with a fixed and dogged look. 

"What has made you think of this devilry?" he asked at last, stillgrasping his knife hard, and half undecided whether or not to use it. "You have invented all these ideas. You have no claim, even in the horridcustoms of your savage country, to demand such a sacrifice. "

Tu-Kila-Kila laughed loud, a laugh of triumphant and discordantmerriment. "Ha, ha!" he cried, "you do not understand our customs, andwill you teach _me_, the very high god, the guardian of the laws andpractices of Boupari? You know nothing; you are as a little child. I amabsolute wisdom. With every Korong, this is always our rule. Till themoon is full, on the last month before we offer up the sacrifice, theQueen of the Clouds dwells apart with her Shadow in her own new temple. So our fathers decreed it. But at the full of the moon, when the day hascome, the usage is that Tu-Kila-Kila, the very high god, confers upon herthe honor of making her his bride. It is a mighty honor. The feast isgreat. Blood flows like water. For seven days and nights, then, she liveswith Tu-Kila-Kila in his sacred abode, the threshold of Heaven; she eatsof human flesh; she tastes human blood; she drinks abundantly of thedivine kava. At the end of that time, in accordance with the custom ofour fathers, those great dead gods, Tu-Kila-Kila performs the high act ofsacrifice. He puts on his mask of the face of a shark, for he is holy andcruel; he brings forth the Queen of the Clouds before the eyes of all hispeople, attired in her wedding robes, and made drunk with kava. Then hegashes her with knives; he offers her up to Heaven that accepted her; andthe King of the Rain he offers after her; and all the people eat of theirflesh, Korong! and drink of their blood, so that the body of gods andgoddesses may dwell within all of them. And when all is done, the highgod chooses a new king and queen at his will (for he is a mighty god), who rule for six moons more, and then are offered up, at the end, in likefashion. "

As he spoke, the ferocious light that gleamed in the savage's eye madeFelix positively mad with anger. But he answered nothing directly. "Isthis so?" he asked, turning for confirmation to Fire and Water. "Is itthe custom of Boupari that Tu-Kila-Kila should wed the Queen of theClouds seven days before the date appointed for her sacrifice?"

The King of Fire and the King of Water, tried guardians of the etiquetteof Tu-Kila-Kila's court, made answer at once with one accord, "It is so, O King of the Rain. Your lips have said it. Tu-Kila-Kila speaks thesolemn truth. He is a very great god. Such is the custom of Boupari. "

Tu-Kila-Kila laughed his triumph in harsh, savage outbursts. 

But Felix drew back for a second, irresolute. At last he stood face toface with the absolute need for immediate action. Now was almost themoment when he must redeem his terrible promise to Muriel. And yet, evenso, there was still one chance of life, one respite left. The mysticyellow bough on the sacred banyan! the Great Taboo! the wager of battlewith Tu-Kila-Kila! Quick as lightning it all came up in his excitedbrain. Time after time, since he heard Methuselah's strange messagefrom the grave, had he passed Tu-Kila-Kila's temple enclosure andlooked up with vague awe at that sacred parasite that grew soconspicuously in a fork of the branches. It was easy to secure it, if noman guarded. There still remained one night. In that one short night hemust do his best--and worst. If all then failed, he must die himself withMuriel!

For two seconds he hesitated. It was hateful even to temporize with sohideous a proposition. But for Muriel's sake, for her dear life's sake, he must meet these savages with guile for guile. "If it be, indeed, thecustom of Boupari, " he answered back, with pale and trembling lips, "andif I, one man, am powerless to prevent it, I will give your message, myself, to the Queen of the Clouds, and you may send, as you say, yourwedding decorations. But come what will--mark this--you shall not see heryourself to-day. You shall not speak to her. There I draw a line--so, with my stick in the dust, if you try to advance one step beyond, I stabyou to the heart. Wait till to-morrow to take your prey. Give me one morenight. Great god as you are, if you are wise, you will not drive an angryman to utter desperation. "

Tu-Kila-Kila looked with a suspicious side glance at the gleaming steelblade Felix still fingered tremulously. Though Boupari was one of thoserare and isolated small islands unvisited as yet by European trade, hehad, nevertheless, heard enough of the sailing gods to know that theirskill was deep and their weapons very dangerous. It would be foolish toprovoke this man to wrath too soon. To-morrow, when taboo was removed, and all was free license, he would come when he willed and take hisbride, backed up by the full force of his assembled people. Meanwhile, why provoke a brother god too far? After all, in a little more than aweek from now the pale-faced Korong would be eaten and digested!

"Very well, " he said, sulkily, but still with the sullen light of revengegleaming bright in his eye. "Take my message to the queen. You may be myherald. Tell her what honor is in store for her--to be first the wife andthen the meat of Tu-Kila-Kila! She is a very fair woman. I like her well. I have longed for her for months. Tomorrow, at the early dawn, by thebreak of day, I will come with all my people and take her home by mainforce to me. "

He looked at Felix and scowled, an angry scowl of revenge. Then, as heturned and walked away, under cover of the great umbrella, with itsdangling pendants on either side, the temple attendants clapped theirhands in unison. Fire and Water marched slow and held the umbrella overhim. As he disappeared in the distance, and the sound of his tom-tomsgrew dim on the hills, Toko, the Shadow, who had lain flat, trembling, onhis face in the hut while the god was speaking, came out and lookedanxiously and fearfully after him. 

"The time is ripe, " he said, in a very low voice to Felix. "A Korong maystrike. All the people of Boupari murmur among themselves. They say thisfellow has held the spirit of Tu-Kila-Kila within himself too long. Hewaxes insolent. They think it is high time the great God of Heaven shouldfind before long some other fleshly tabernacle. "

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A RASH RESOLVE. 

The rest of that day was a time of profound and intense anxiety. Felixand Muriel remained alone in their huts, absorbed in plans of escape, butmessengers of many sorts from chiefs and gods kept continually coming tothem. The natives evidently regarded it as a period of preparation. TheEyes of Tu-Kila-Kila surrounded their precinct; yet Felix couldn't helpnoticing that they seemed in many ways less watchful than of old, andthat they whispered and conferred very much in a mysterious fashion withthe people of the village. More than once Toko shook his head, sagely, "If only any one dared break the Great Taboo, " he said, with some terroron his face, "our people would be glad. It would greatly please them. They are tired of this Tu-Kila-Kila. He has held the god in his breastfar, far too long. They would willingly see some other in place of him. "

Before noon, the young girls of the village, bringing native mats andhuge strings of nautilus shells, trooped up to the hut, like bridesmaids, with flowers in their hands, to deck Muriel for her approaching wedding. Before them they carried quantities of red and brown tappa-cloth andvery fine net-work, the dowry to be presented by the royal bride to herdivine husband. Within the hut, they decked out the Queen of the Cloudswith garlands of flowers and necklets of shells, in solemn nativefashion, bewailing her fate all the time to a measured dirge in theirown language. Muriel could see that their sympathy, though partlyconventional, was largely real as well. Many of the young girls seizedher hand convulsively from time to time, and kissed it with genuinefeeling. The gentle young English woman had won their savage heartsby her purity and innocence. "Poor thing, poor thing, " they said, stroking her hand tenderly. "She is too good for Korong! Too good forTu-Kila-Kila! If only we knew the Great Taboo like the men, we would tellher everything. She is too good to die. We are sorry she is to besacrificed!"

But when all their preparations were finished, the chief among themraised a calabash with a little scented oil in it, and poured a few dropssolemnly on Muriel's head. "Oh, great god!" she said, in her own tongue, "we offer this sacrifice, a goddess herself, to you. We obey your words. You are very holy. We will each of us eat a portion of her flesh at yourfeast. So give us good crops, strong health, many children!"

"What does she say?" Muriel asked, pale and awestruck, of Mali. 

Mali translated the words with perfect _sang-froid_. At that awful soundMuriel drew back, chill and cold to the marrow. How inconceivable was thestate of mind of these terrible people! They were really sorry for her;they kissed her hand with fervor; and yet they deliberately and solemnlyproposed to eat her!

Toward evening the young girls at last retired, in regular order, to theclapping of hands, and Felix was left alone with Muriel and the Shadows. 

Already he had explained to Muriel what he intended to do; and Muriel, half dazed with terror and paralyzed by these awful preparations, consented passively. "But how if you never come back, Felix?" she criedat last, clinging to him passionately. 

Felix looked at her with a fixed look. "I have thought of that, " he said. "M. Peyron, to whom I sent a message by flashes, has helped me in mydifficulty. This bowl has poison in it. Peyron sent it to me to-day. Heprepared it himself from the root of the kava bean. If by sunriseto-morrow you have heard no news, drink it off at once. It will instantlykill you. You shall _not_ fall alive into that creature's clutches. "

By slow degrees the evening wore on, and night approached--the last nightthat remained to them. Felix had decided to make his attempt about one inthe morning. The moon was nearly full now, and there would be plentyof light. Supposing he succeeded, if they gained nothing else, they wouldgain at least a day or two's respite. 

As dusk set in, and they sat by the door of the hut, they were allsurprised to see Ula approach the precinct stealthily through thejungle, accompanied by two of Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes, yet apparently on somestrange and friendly message. She beckoned imperiously with one finger toToko to cross the line. The Shadow rose, and without one word ofexplanation went out to speak to her. The woman gave her message inshort, sharp sentences. "We have found out all, " she said, breathinghard. "Fire and Water have learned it. But Tu-Kila-Kila himself knowsnothing. We have found out that the King of the Rain has discovered thesecret of the Great Taboo. He heard it from the Soul of all dead parrots. Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes saw, and learned, and understood. But they saidnothing to Tu-Kila-Kila. For my counsel was wise; I planned that theyshould not, with Fire and Water. Fire and Water and all the people ofBoupari think, with me, the time has come that there should arise amongus a new Tu-Kila-Kila. This one let his blood fall out upon the dust ofthe ground. His luck has gone. We have need of another. "

"Then for what have you come?" Toko asked, all awestruck. It was terribleto him for a woman to meddle in such high matters. 

"I have come, " Ula answered, laying her hand on his arm, and holding herface close to his with profound solemnity--"I have come to say to theKing of the Rain, 'Whatever you do, that do quickly. ' To-night I willengage to keep Tu-Kila-Kila in his temple. He shall see nothing. Heshall hear nothing. I know not the Great Taboo; but I know from him thismuch--that if by wile or guile I keep him alone in his temple to-night, the King of the Rain may fight with him in single combat; and if the Kingof the Rain conquers in the battle, he becomes himself the home of thegreat deity. "

She nodded thrice, with her hands on her forehead, and withdrew asstealthily as she had come through the jungle. The Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, falling into line, remained behind, and kept watch upon the huts with theclosest apparent scrutiny. 

More than ever they were hemmed in by mystery on mystery. 

The Shadow went back and reported to Felix. Felix, turning it over in hisown mind, wondered and debated. Was this true, or a trap to lure him todestruction?

As the night wore on, and the hour drew nigh, Muriel sat beside herfriend and lover, in blank despair and agony. How could she ever allowhim to leave her now? How could she venture to remain alone with Mali inher hut in this last extremity? It was awful to be so girt withmysterious enemies. "I must go with you, Felix! I must go, too!" shecried over and over again. "I daren't remain behind with all these awfulmen. And then, if he kills either of us, he will kill us at least bothtogether. "

But Felix knew he might do nothing of the sort. A more terrible chancewas still in reserve. He might spare Muriel. And against that awfulpossibility he felt it his duty now to guard at all hazard. 

"No, Muriel, " he said, kissing her, and holding her pale hand, "I must goalone. You can't come with me. If I return, we will have gained at leasta respite, till the Australasian may turn up. If I don't, you will at anyrate have strength of mind left to swallow the poison, beforeTu-Kila-Kila comes to claim you. "

Hour after hour passed by slowly, and Felix and the Shadow watched thestars at the door, to know when the hour for the attempt had arrived. Theeyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, peering silent from just beyond the line, saw themwatching all the time, but gave no sign or token of disapproval. Withheads bent low, and tangled hair about their faces, they stood likestatues, watching, watching sullenly. Were they only waiting till hemoved, Felix wondered; and would they then hasten off by short routesthrough the jungle to warn their master of the impending conflict?

At last the hour came when Felix felt sure there was the greatest chanceof Tu-Kila-Kila sleeping soundly in his hut, and forgetting the defenceof the sacred bough on the holy banyan-tree. He rose from his seat with agesture for silence, and moved forward to Muriel. The poor girl flungherself, all tears, into his arms. "Oh, Felix, Felix, " she cried, "redeemyour promise now! Kill us both here together, and then, at least, I shallnever be separated from you! It wouldn't be wrong! It can't be wrong! Wewould surely be forgiven if we did it only to escape falling into thehands of these terrible savages!"

Felix clasped her to his bosom with a faltering heart. "No, Muriel, " hesaid, slowly. "Not yet. Not yet. I must leave no opening on earth untriedby which I can possibly or conceivably save you. It's as hard for meto leave you here alone as for you to be left. But for your own dearsake, I must steel myself. I must do it. "

He kissed her many times over. He wiped away her tears. Then, with agentle movement, he untwined her clasping arms. "You must let me go, myown darling, " he said, "You must let me go, without crossing the border. If you pass beyond the taboo-line to-night, Heaven only knows what, perhaps, may happen to you. We must give these people no handle ofoffence. Good-night, Muriel, my own heart's wife; and if I never comeback, then good-by forever. "

She clung to his arm still. He disentangled himself, gently. The Shadowrose at the same moment, and followed in silence to the open door. Murielrushed after them, wildly. "Oh, Felix, Felix, come back, " she cried, bursting into wild floods of hot, fierce tears. "Come back and let me diewith you! Let me die! Let me die with you!"

Felix crossed the white line without one word of reply, and went forthinto the night, half unmanned by this effort. Muriel sank, where shestood, into Mali's arms. The girl caught her and supported her. Butbefore she had fainted quite away, Muriel had time vaguely to see andnote one significant fact. The Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, who stood watchingthe huts with lynx-like care, nodded twice to Toko, the Shadow, as hepassed between them; then they stealthily turned and dogged the two men'sfootsteps afar off in the jungle. 

Muriel was left by herself in the hut, face to face with Mali. 

"Let us pray, Mali, " she cried, seizing her Shadow's arm. 

And Mali, moved suddenly by some half-obliterated impulse, exclaimed inconcert, in a terrified voice, "Let us pray to Methodist God in heaven!"

For her life, too, hung on the issue of that rash endeavor. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

A STRANGE ALLY. 

In Tu-Kila-Kila's temple-hut, meanwhile, the jealous, revengeful god, enshrined among his skeletons, was having in his turn an anxious anddoubtful time of it. Ever since his sacred blood had stained the dust ofearth by the Frenchman's cottage and in his own temple, Tu-Kila-Kila, for all his bluster, had been deeply stirred and terrified in his inmostsoul by that unlucky portent. A savage, even if he be a god, is alwayssuperstitious. Could it be that his own time was, indeed, drawing nigh?That he, who had remorselessly killed and eaten so many hundreds of humanvictims, was himself to fall a prey to some more successful competitor?Had the white-faced stranger, the King of the Rain, really learned thesecrets of the Great Taboo from the Soul of all dead parrots? Did thatmysterious bird speak the tongue of these new fire-bearing Korongs, whose doom was fixed for the approaching solstice? Tu-Kila-Kila wonderedand doubted. His suspicions were keen, and deeply aroused. Late thatnight he still lurked by the sacred banyan-tree, and when at last heretired to his own inner temple, white with the grinning skulls of thevictims he had devoured, it was with strict injunctions to Fire andWater, and to his Eyes that watched there, to bring him word at once ofany projected aggression on the part of the stranger. 

Within the temple-hut, however, Ula awaited him. That was a pleasantchange. The beautiful, supple, satin-skinned Polynesian looked morebeautiful and more treacherous than ever that fateful evening. Her greatbrown limbs, smooth and glossy as pearl, were set off by a narrow girdleor waistband of green and scarlet leaves, twined spirally around her. Armlets of nautilus shell threw up the dainty plumpness of her soft, round forearm. A garland hung festooned across one shapely shoulder;her bosom was bare or but half hidden by the crimson hibiscus thatnestled voluptuously upon it. As Tu-Kila-Kila entered, she lifted herlarge eyes, and, smiling, showed two even rows of pearly white teeth. "Mymaster has come!" she cried, holding up both lissome arms with a gestureto welcome him. "The great god relaxes his care of the world for a while. All goes on well. He leaves his sun to sleep and his stars to shine, andhe retires to rest on the unworthy bosom of her, his mate, his meat, thatis honored to love him. "

Tu-Kila-Kila was scarcely just then in a mood for dalliance. "The Queenof the Clouds comes hither to-morrow, " he answered, casting a somewhatcontemptuous glance at Ula's more dusky and solid charms. "I go toseek her with the wedding gifts early in the morning. For a week sheshall be mine. And after that--" he lifted his tomahawk and brought itdown on a huge block of wood significantly. 

Ula smiled once more, that deep, treacherous smile of hers, and showedher white teeth even deeper than ever. "If my lord, the great god, risesso early to-morrow, " she said, sidling up toward him voluptuously, "toseek one more bride for his sacred temple, all the more reason he shouldtake his rest and sleep soundly to-night. Is he not a god? Are not hislimbs tired? Does he not need divine silence and slumber?"

Tu-Kila-Kila pouted. "I could sleep more soundly, " he said, with a snort, "if I knew what my enemy, the Korong, is doing. I have set my Eyes towatch him, yet I do not feel secure. They are not to be trusted. I shallbe happier far when I have killed and eaten him. " He passed his handacross his bosom with a reflective air. You have a great sense ofsecurity toward your enemy, no doubt, when you know that he slumbers, well digested, within you. 

Ula raised herself on her elbow, and gazed snake-like into his face, "Mylord's Eyes are everywhere, " she said, reverently, with every mark ofrespect. "He sees and knows all things. Who can hide anything on earthfrom his face? Even when he is asleep, his Eyes watch well for him. Thenwhy should the great god, the Measurer of Heaven and Earth, the King ofMen, fear a white-faced stranger? To-morrow the Queen of the Clouds willbe yours, and the stranger will be abased: ha, ha, he will grieve at it!To-night, Fire and Water keep guard and watch over you. Whoever wouldhurt you must pass through Fire and Water before he reach your door. Firewould burn, Water would drown. This is a Great Taboo. No stranger dareface it. "

Tu-Kila-Kila lifted himself up in his thrasonic mood. "If he did, " hecried, swelling himself, "I would shrivel him to ashes with one flash ofmy eyes. I would scorch him to a cinder with one stroke of my lightning. "

Ula smiled again, a well-satisfied smile. She was working her man up. "Tu-Kila-Kila is great, " she repeated, slowly. "All earth obeys him. Allheaven fears him. "

The savage took her hand with a doubtful air. "And yet, " he said, toyingwith it, half irresolute, "when I went to the white-faced stranger's hutthis morning, he did not speak fair; he answered me insolently. His wordswere bold. He talked to me as one talks to a man, not to a great god. Ula, I wonder if he knows my secret?"

Ula started back in well-affected horror. "A white-faced stranger fromthe sun know your secret, O great king!" she cried, hiding her face in asquare of cloth. "See me beat my breast! Impossible! Impossible! Noone of your subjects would dare to tell him so great a taboo. It would berank blasphemy. If they did, your anger would utterly consume them!"

"That is true, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, practically, "but I might not discoverit. I am a very great god. My Eyes are everywhere. No corner of the worldis hid from my gaze. All the concerns of heaven and earth are my care, And, therefore; sometimes, I overlook some detail. "

"No man alive would dare to tell the Great Taboo!" Ula repeated, confidently. "Why, even I myself, who am the most favored of yourwives, and who am permitted to bask in the light of your presence--evenI, Ula--I do not know it. How much less, then, the spirit from the sun, the sailing god, the white-faced stranger!"

Tu-Kila-Kila pursed up his brow and looked preternaturally wise, as thesavage loves to do. "But the parrot, " he cried, "the Soul of all deadparrots! _He_ knew the secret, they say:--I taught it him myself in anancient day, many, many years ago--when no man now living was born, saveonly I--in another incarnation--and _he_ may have told it. For thestrangers, they say, speak the language of birds; and in the language ofbirds did I tell the Great Taboo to him. "

Ula pooh-poohed the mighty man-god's fears. "No, no, " she cried, withconfidence; "he can never have told them. If he had, would not your Eyesthat watch ever for all that happens on heaven or earth, have straightwayreported it to you? The parrot died without yielding up the tale. Were itotherwise, Toko, who loves and worships you, would surely have told me. "

The man-god puckered his brows slightly, as if he liked not the security. "Well, somehow, Ula, " he said, feeling her soft brown arms with hisdivine hand, slowly, "I have always had my doubts since that day the Soulof all dead parrots bit me. A vicious bird! What did he mean by hisbite?" He lowered his voice and looked at her fixedly. "Did not hisspilling my blood portend, " he asked, with a shudder of fear, "thatthrough that ill-omened bird I, who was once Lavita, should cease to beTu-Kila-Kila?"

Ula smiled contentedly again. To say the truth, that was precisely theinterpretation she herself had put on that terrific omen. The parrot hadspilled Tu-Kila-Kila's sacred blood upon the soil of earth. According toher simple natural philosophy, that was a certain sign that through theparrot's instrumentality Tu-Kila-Kila's life would be forfeited to thegreat eternal earth-spirit. Or, rather, the earth-spirit would claim theblood of the man Lavita, in whose body it dwelt, and would itself migrateto some new earthly tabernacle. 

But for all that, she dissembled. "Great god, " she cried, smiling, abenign smile, "you are tired! You are thirsty! Care for heaven andearth has wearied you out. You feel the fatigue of upholding the sun inheaven. Your arms must ache. Your thews must give under you. Drink of thesoul-inspiring juice of the kava! My hands have prepared the divine cup. For Tu-Kila-Kila did I make it--fresh, pure, invigorating!"

She held the bowl to his lips with an enticing smile. Tu-Kila-Kilahesitated and glanced around him suspiciously. "What if the white-facedstranger should come to-night?" he whispered, hoarsely. "He may havediscovered the Great Taboo, after all. Who can tell the ways of theworld, how they come about? My people are so treacherous. Some traitormay have betrayed it to him. "

"Impossible, " the beautiful, snake-like woman answered, with a stronggesture of natural dissent. "And even if he came, would not kava, thedivine, inspiriting drink of the gods, in which dwell the embodied soulsof our fathers--would not kava make you more vigorous, strong for thefight? Would it not course through your limbs like fire? Would it notpour into your soul the divine, abiding strength of your mighty mother, the eternal earth-spirit?"

"A little, " Tu-Kila-Kila said, yielding, "but not too much. Too muchwould stupefy me. When the spirits, that the kava-tree sucks up from theearth, are too strong within us, they overpower our own strength, so thateven I, the high god--even I can do nothing. "

Ula held the bowl to his lips, and enticed him to drink with herbeautiful eyes. "A deep draught, O supporter of the sun in heaven, " shecried, pressing his arm tenderly. "Am I not Ula? Did I not brew it foryou? Am I not the chief and most favored among your women? I will sit atthe door. I will watch all night. I will not close an eye. Not a footfallon the ground but my ear shall hear it. "

"Do. " Tu-Kila-Kila said, laconically. "I fear Fire and Water. Those godslove me not. Fain would they make me migrate into some other body. But Imyself like it not. This one suits me admirably. Ula, that kava isstronger than you are used to make it. "

"No, no, " Ula cried, pressing it to his lips a second time, passionately. "You are a very great god. You are tired; it overcomes you. And if yousleep, I will watch. Fire and Water dare not disobey your commands. Areyou not great? Your Eyes are everywhere. And I, even I, will be as one ofthem. "

The savage gulped down a few more mouthfuls of the intoxicating liquid. Then he glanced up again suddenly with a quick, suspicious look. Thecunning of his race gave him wisdom in spite of the deadly strength ofthe kava Ula had brewed too deep for him. With a sudden resolve, he roseand staggered out. "You are a serpent, woman!" he cried angrily, seeingthe smile that lurked upon Ula's face. "To-morrow I will kill you. I willtake the white woman for my bride, and she and I will feast off yourcarrion body. You have tried to betray me, but you are not cunningenough, not strong enough. No woman shall kill me. I am a very great god. I will not yield. I will wait by the tree. This is a trap you have set, but I do not fall into it. If the King of the Rain comes, I shall bethere to meet him. "

He seized his spear and hatchet and walked forth, erect, without one signof drunkenness. Ula trembled to herself as she saw him go. She wasplaying a deep game. Had she given him only just enough kava tostrengthen and inspire him?

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WAGER OF BATTLE. 

Felix wound his way painfully through the deep fern-brake of the jungle, by no regular path, so as to avoid exciting the alarm of the natives, andto take Tu-Kila-Kila's palace-temple from the rear, where the big tree, which overshadowed it with its drooping branches, was most easilyapproachable. As he and Toko crept on, bending low, through that densetropical scrub, in deathly silence, they were aware all the time of alow, crackling sound that rang ever some paces in the rear on their trailthrough the forest. It was Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes, following them stealthilyfrom afar, footstep for footstep, through the dense undergrowth of bush, and the crisp fallen leaves and twigs that snapped light beneath theirfootfall. What hope of success with those watchful spies, keen as beaglesand cruel as bloodhounds, following ever on their track? What chance ofescape for Felix and Muriel, with the cannibal man-gods toils laid roundon every side to insure their destruction?

Silently and cautiously the two men groped their way on through the darkgloom of the woods, in spite of their mute pursuers. The moonlightflickered down athwart the trackless soil as they went; the hum ofinsects innumerable droned deep along the underbrush. Now and then thestartled scream of a night jar broke the monotony of the buzz that wasworse than silence; owls boomed from the hollow trees, and firefliesdarted dim through the open spaces. At last they emerged upon the clearedarea of the temple. There Felix, without one moment's hesitation, with afirm and resolute tread, stepped over the white coral line that markedthe taboo of the great god's precincts. That was a declaration of openwar; he had crossed the Rubicon of Tu-Kila-Kila's empire. Toko stoodtrembling on the far side; none might pass that mystic line unbidden andlive, save the Korong alone who could succeed in breaking off the bough"with yellow leaves, resembling a mistletoe, " of which Methuselah, theparrot, had told Felix and Muriel, and so earn the right to fight for hislife with the redoubted and redoubtable Tu-Kila-Kila. 

As he stepped over the taboo-line, Felix was aware of many native eyesfixed stonily upon him from the surrounding precinct. Clearly they wereawaiting him. Yet not a soul gave the alarm; that in itself would havebeen to break taboo. Every man or woman among the temple attendantswithin that charmed circle stood on gaze curiously. Close by, Ula, thefavorite wife of the man-god, crouched low by the hut, with one fingeron her treacherous lips, bending eagerly forward, in silent expectationof what next might happen. Once, and once only, she glanced at Tokowith a mute sign of triumph; then she fixed her big eyes on Felix intremulous anxiety; for to her as to him, life and death now hungabsolutely on the issue of his enterprise. A little farther back the Kingof Fire and the King of Water, in full sacrificial robes, stood smilingsardonically. For them it was merely a question of one master more orless, one Tu-Kila-Kila in place of another. They had no special interestin the upshot of the contest, save in so far as they always hated mostthe man who for the moment held by his own strong arm the superiorgodship over them. Around, Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes kept watch and ward insinister silence. Taboo was stronger than even the commands of the highgod himself. When once a Korong had crossed that fatal line, unbidden andunwelcomed by Tu-Kila-Kila, he came as Tu-Kila-Kila's foe and would-besuccessor; the duty of every guardian of the temple was then to see fairplay between the god that was and the god that might be--the Tu-Kila-Kilaof the hour and the Tu-Kila-Kila who might possibly supplant him. 

"Let the great spirit itself choose which body it will inhabit, " the Kingof Fire murmured in a soft, low voice, glancing toward a dark spot at thefoot of the big tree. The moonlight fell dim through the branches on theplace where he looked. The glibbering bones of dead victims rattledlightly in the wind. Felix's eyes followed the King of Fire's, and saw, lying asleep upon the ground, Tu-Kila-Kila himself, with his spear andtomahawk. 

He lay there, huddled up by the very roots of the tree, breathing deepand regularly. Right over his head projected the branch, in one part ofwhose boughs grew the fateful parasite. By the dim light of the moon, straggling through the dense foliage, Felix could see its yellow leavesdistinctly. Beneath it hung a skeleton, suspended by invisible cords, head downward from the branches. It was the skeleton of a previous Korongwho had tried in vain to reach the bough, and perished. Tu-Kila-Kila hadmade high feast on the victim's flesh; his bones, now collected togetherand cunningly fastened with native rope, served at once as a warning andas a trap or pitfall for all who might rashly venture to follow him. 

Felix stood for one moment, alone and awe-struck, a solitary civilizedman, among those hideous surroundings. Above, the cold moon; all about, the grim, stolid, half-hostile natives; close by, that strange, serpentine, savage wife, guarding, cat-like, the sleep of her cannibalhusband; behind, the watchful Eyes of Tu-Kila-Kila, waiting ever in thebackground, ready to raise a loud shout of alarm and warning the momentthe fatal branch was actually broken, but mute, by their vows, till thatmoment was accomplished. Then a sudden wild impulse urged him on to theattempt. The banyan had dropped down rooting offsets to the ground, afterthe fashion of its kind, from its main branches. Felix seized one ofthese and swung himself lightly up, till he reached the very limb onwhich the sacred parasite itself was growing. 

To get to the parasite, however, he must pass directly aboveTu-Kila-Kila's head, and over the point where that ghastly grinningskeleton was suspended, as by an unseen hair, from the fork that bore it. 

He walked along, balancing himself, and clutching, as he went, at theneighboring boughs, while Tu-Kila-Kila, overcome with the kava, sleptstolidly and heavily on beneath him. At last he was almost within graspof the parasite. Could he lunge out and clutch it? One try--one effort!No, no; he almost lost footing and fell over in the attempt. He couldn'tkeep his balance so. He must try farther on. Come what might, he must gopast the skeleton. 

The grisly mass swung again, clanking its bones as it swung, and groanedin the wind ominously. The breeze whistled audibly through its hollowskull and vacant eye-sockets. Tu-Kila-Kila turned uneasily in his sleepbelow. Felix saw there was not one instant of time to be lost now. Hepassed on boldly; and as he passed, a dozen thin cords of paper mulberry, stretched every way in an invisible network among the boughs, too smallto be seen in the dim moonlight, caught him with their toils and almostoverthrew him. They broke with his weight, and Felix himself, tumblingblindly, fell forward. At the cost of a sprained wrist and a great jerkon his bruised fingers, he caught at a bough by his side, but wrenched itaway suddenly. It was touch and go. At the very same moment, the skeletonfell heavily, and rattled on the ground beside Tu-Kila-Kila. 

Before Felix could discover what had actually happened, a very greatshout went up all round below, and made him stagger with excitement. Tu-Kila-Kila was awake, and had started up, all intent, mad with wrathand kava. Glaring about him wildly, and brandishing his great spear inhis stalwart hands, he screamed aloud, in a perfect frenzy of passion anddespair: "Where is he, the Korong? Bring him on, my meat! Let me devourhis heart! Let me tear him to pieces. Let me drink of his blood! Let mekill him and eat him!"

Sick and desperate at the accident, Felix, in turn, clinging hard to hisbough with one hand, gazed wildly about him to look for the parasite. Butit had gone as if by magic. He glanced around in despair, vaguelyconscious that nothing was left for it now but to drop to the groundand let himself be killed at leisure by that frantic savage. Yet even ashe did so, he was aware of that great cry--a cry as of triumph--stillrending the air. Fire and Water had rushed forward, and were holding backTu-Kila-Kila, now black in the face from rage, with all their might. Ulawas smiling a malicious joy. The Eyes were all agog with interest andexcitement. And from one and all that wild scream rose unanimous to thestartled sky: "He has it! He has it! The Soul of the Tree! The Spirit ofthe World! The great god's abode. Hold off your hands, Lavita, son ofSami! Your trial has come. He has it! He has it!"

Felix looked about him with a whirling brain. His eye fell suddenly. There, in his own hand, lay the fateful bough. In his efforts to steadyhimself, he had clutched at it by pure accident, and broken it offunawares with the force of his clutching. As fortune would have it, hegrasped it still. His senses reeled. He was almost dead with excitement, suspense, and uncertainty, mingled with pain of his wrenched wrist. Butfor Muriel's sake he pulled himself together. Gazing down and trying hardto take it all in--that strange savage scene--he saw that Tu-Kila-Kilawas making frantic attempts to lunge at him with the spear, while theKing of Fire and the King of Water, stern and relentless, were holdinghim off by main force, and striving their best to appease and quiet him. 

There was an awful pause. Then a voice broke the stillness from beyondthe taboo-line:

"The Shadow of the King of the Rain speaks, " it said, in very solemn, conventional accents. "Korong! Korong! The Great Taboo is broken. Fireand Water, hold him in whom dwells the god till my master comes. He hasthe Soul of all the spirits of the wood in his hands. He will fight forhis right. Taboo! Taboo! I, Toko, have said it. "

He clapped his hands thrice. 

Tu-Kila-Kila made a wild effort to break away once more. But the King ofFire, standing opposite him, spoke still louder and clearer. "If youtouch the Korong before the line is drawn, " he said, with a voice ofauthority, "you are no Tu-Kila-Kila, but an outcast and a criminal. Allthe people will hold you with forked sticks, while the Korong burns youalive slowly, limb by limb, with me, who am Fire, the fierce, theconsuming. I will scorch you and bake you till you are as a bamboo in theflame. Taboo! Taboo! Taboo! I, Fire, have said it. "

The King of Water, with three attendants, forced Tu-Kila-Kila on oneside for a moment. Ula stood by and smiled pleased compliance. A templeslave, trembling all over at this conflict of the gods, brought out acalabash full of white coral-sand. The King of Water spat on it andblessed it. By this time a dozen natives, at least, had assembled outsidethe taboo-line, and stood eagerly watching the result of the combat. Thetemple slave made a long white mark with the coral-sand on one side ofthe cleared area. Then he handed the calabash solemnly to Toko. Tokocrossed the sacred precinct with a few inaudible words of muttered charm, to save the Taboo, as prescribed in the mysteries. Then he drew a similarline on the ground on his side, some twenty yards off. "Descend, O mylord!" he cried to Felix; and Felix, still holding the bough tight in hishand, swung himself blindly from the tree, and took his place by Toko. 

"Toe the line!" Toko cried, and Felix toed it. 

"Bring up your god!" the Shadow called out aloud to the King of Water. And the King of Water, using no special ceremony with so great a duty, dragged Tu-Kila-Kila helplessly along with him to the farther taboo-line. 

The King of Water brought a spear and tomahawk. He handed them to Felix. "With these weapons, " he said, "fight, and merit heaven. I hold the boughmeanwhile--the victor takes it. "

The King of Fire stood out between the lists. "Korongs and gods, " hesaid, "the King of the Rain has plucked the sacred bough, according toour fathers' rites, and claims trial which of you two shall henceforthhold the sacred soul of the world, the great Tu-Kila-Kila. Wager ofBattle decides the day. Keep toe to line. At the end of my words, forth, forward, and fight for it. The great god knows his own, and will choosehis abode. Taboo, Taboo, Taboo! I, Fire, have spoken it. "

Scarcely were the words well out of his mouth, when, with a wild whoop ofrage, Tu-Kila-Kila, who had the advantage of knowing the rules of thegame, so to speak, dashed madly forward, drunk with passion and kava, andgave one lunge with his spear full tilt at the breast of the startled andunprepared white man. His aim, though frantic, was not at fault. Thespear struck Felix high up on the left side. He felt a dull thud of pain;a faint gurgle of blood. Even in the pale moonlight his eye told him atonce a red stream was trickling--out over his flannel shirt. He waspricked, at least. The great god had wounded him. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

VICTORY--AND AFTER?

The great god had wounded him. But not to the heart. Felix, as good luckwould have it, happened to be wearing buckled braces. He had worn them onboard, and, like the rest of his costume, had, of course, never sincebeen able to discard them. They stood him in good stead now. The bucklecaught the very point of the bone-tipped spear, and broke the force ofthe blow, as the great god lunged forward. The wound was but a graze, andTu-Kila-Kila's light shaft snapped short in the middle. 

Madder and wilder than ever, the savage pitched it away, yelling, rushedforward with a fierce curse on his angry tongue, and flung himself, toothand nail, on his astonished opponent. 

The suddenness of the onslaught almost took the Englishman's breath away. By this time, however, Felix had pulled together his ideas and taken inthe situation. Tu-Kila-Kila was attacking him now with his heavy stoneaxe. He must parry those deadly blows. He must be alert, but watchful. Hemust put himself in a posture of defence at once. Above all, he must keepcool and have his wits about him. 

If he could but have drawn his knife, he would have stood a better chancein that hand-to-hand conflict. But there was no time now for such tacticsas those. Besides, even in close fight with a bloodthirsty savage, anEnglish gentleman's sense of fair play never for one moment deserts him. Felix felt, if they were to fight it out face to face for their lives, they should fight at least on a perfect equality. Steel against stone wasa mean advantage. Parrying Tu-Kila-Kila's first desperate blow with thehaft of his own hatchet, he leaped aside half a second to gain breath andstrength. Then he rushed on, and dealt one deadly downstroke with theponderous weapon. 

For a minute or two they closed, in perfectly savage single combat. Fire and Water, observant and impartial, stood by like seconds to seethe god himself decide the issue, which of the two combatants should behis living representative. The contest was brief but very hard-fought. Tu-Kila-Kila, inspired with the last frenzy of despair, rushed wildlyon his opponent with hands and fists, and teeth and nails, dealing hisblows in blind fury, right and left, and seeking only to sell his lifeas dearly as possible. In this last extremity, his very superstitionstold against him. Everything seemed to show his hour had come. Theparrot's bite--the omen of his own blood that stained the dust ofearth--Ula's treachery--the chance by which the Korong had learned theGreat Taboo--Felix's accidental or providential success in breaking offthe bough--the length of time he himself had held the divine honors--theprobability that the god would by this time begin to prefer a new andstronger representative--all these things alike combined to fire thedrunk and maddened savage with the energy of despair. He fell upon hisenemy like a tiger upon an elephant. He fought with his tomahawk and hisfeet and his whole lithe body; he foamed at the mouth with impotent rage;he spent his force on the air in the extremity of his passion. 

Felix, on the other hand, sobered by pain, and nerved by the fixedconsciousness that Muriel's safety now depended absolutely on his perfectcoolness, fought with the calm skill of a practised fencer. Happily hehad learned the gentle art of thrust and parry years before in England;and though both weapon and opponent were here so different, the lesson ofquickness and calm watchfulness he had gained in that civilized schoolstood him in good stead, even now, under such adverse circumstances. Tu-Kila-Kila, getting spent, drew back for a second at last, and pantedfor breath. That faint breathing-space of a moment's duration sealed hisfate. Seizing his chance with consummate skill, Felix closed upon thebreathless monster, and brought down the heavy stone hammer point blankupon the centre of his crashing skull. The weapon drove home. It cleft agreat red gash in the cannibal's head. Tu-Kila-Kila reeled and fell. There was an infinitesimal pause of silence and suspense. Then a greatshout went up from all round to heaven, "He has killed him! He haskilled him! We have a new-made god! Tu-Kila-Kila is dead! Long liveTu-Kila-Kila!"

Felix drew back for a moment, panting and breathless, and wiped his wetbrow with his sleeve, his brain all whirling. At his feet, the savage laystretched, like a log. Felix gazed at the blood-bespattered faceremorsefully. It is an awful thing, even in a just quarrel, to feel thatyou have really taken a human life! The responsibility is enough toappall the bravest of us. He stooped down and examined the prostrate bodywith solemn reverence. Blood was flowing in torrents from the woundedhead. But Tu-Kila-Kila was dead--stone-dead forever. 

Hot tears of relief welled up into Felix's eyes. He touched the bodycautiously with a reverent hand. No life. No motion. 

Just as he did so, the woman Ula came forward, bare-limbed and beautiful, all triumph in her walk, a proud, insensitive savage. One second shegazed at the great corpse disdainfully. Then she lifted her dainty foot, and gave it a contemptuous kick. "The body of Lavita, the son of Sami, "she said, with a gesture of hatred. "He had a bad heart. We will cook itand eat it. " Next turning to Felix, "Oh, Tu-Kila-Kila, " she cried, clapping her hands three times and bowing low to the ground, "you are avery great god. We will serve you and salute you. Am not I, Ula, one ofyour wives, your meat? Do with me as you will. Toko, you are henceforththe great god's Shadow!"

Felix gazed at the beautiful, heartless creature, all horrified. Even onBoupari, that cannibal island, he was hardly prepared for quite so low adepth of savage insensibility. But all the people around, now a hundredor more, standing naked before their new god, took up the shout inconcert. "The body of Lavita, the son of Sami, " they cried. "A carrioncorpse! The god has deserted it. The great soul of the world has enteredthe heart of the white-faced stranger from the disk of the sun; the Kingof the Rain; the great Tu-Kila-Kila. We will cook and eat the body ofLavita, the son of Sami. He was a bad man. He is a worn-out shell. Nothing remains of him now. The great god has left him. "

They clapped their hands in a set measure as they recited this hymn. The King of Fire retreated into the temple. Ula stood by, and whisperedlow with Toko. There was a ceremonial pause of some fifteen minutes. Presently, from the inner recesses of the temple itself, a low noiseissued forth as of a rising wind. For some seconds it buzzed and hummed, droningly. But at the very first note of that holy sound Ula dropped herlover's hand, as one drops a red-hot coal, and darted wildly off atfull speed, like some frightened wild beast, into the thick jungle. Everyother woman near began to rush away with equally instantaneous signs ofhaste and fear. The men, on the other hand, erect and naked, with theirhands on their foreheads, crossed the taboo-line at once. It was thesummons to all who had been initiated at the mysteries--the sacredbull-roarer was calling the assembly of the men of Boupari. 

For several minutes it buzzed and droned, that mystic implement, growinglouder and louder, till it roared like thunder. One after another, themen of the island rushed in as if mad or in flight for their lives beforesome fierce beast pursuing them. They ran up, panting, and dripping withsweat; their hands clapped to their foreheads; their eyes starting wildlyfrom their staring sockets; torn and bleeding and lacerated by the thornsand branches of the jungle, for each man ran straight across country fromthe spot where he lay asleep, in the direction of the sound, and neverpaused or drew breath, for dear life's sake, till he stood beside thecorpse of the dead Tu-Kila-Kila. 

And every moment the cry pealed louder and louder still. "Lavita, the sonof Sami, is dead, praise Heaven! The King of the Rain has slain him, andis now the true Tu-Kila-Kila!"

Felix bent irresolute over the fallen savage's bloodstained corpse. Whatnext was expected of him he hardly knew or cared. His one desire now wasto return to Muriel--to Muriel, whom he had rescued from something worsethan death at the hateful hands of that accursed creature who laybreathless forever on the ground beside him. 

Somebody came up just then, and seized his hand warmly. Felix looked upwith a start. It was their friend, the Frenchman. "Ah, my captain, youhave done well, " M. Peyron cried, admiring him. "What courage! Whatcoolness! What pluck! What soldiership! I couldn't see all. But I was inat the death! And oh, _mon Dieu_, how I admired and envied you!"

By this time the bull-roarer had ceased to bellow among the rocks. TheKing of Fire stood forth. In his hands he held a length of bamboo-stickwith a lighted coal in it. "Bring wood and palm-leaves, " he said, in atone of command. "Let me light myself up, that I may blaze beforeTu-Kila-Kila. "

He turned and bowed thrice very low before Felix. "The accepted ofHeaven, " he cried, holding his hands above him. "The very high god! TheKing of all Things! He sends down his showers upon our crops and ourfields. He causes his sun to shine brightly over us. He makes our pigsand our slaves bring forth their increase. All we are but his meat. We, his people, praise him. "

And all the men of Boupari, naked and bleeding, bent low in response. "Tu-Kila-Kila is great, " they chanted, as they clapped their hands. "Wethank him that he has chosen a fresh incarnation. The sun will not fadein the heavens overhead, nor the bread-fruits wither and cease to bearfruit on earth. Tu-Kila-Kila, our god, is great. He springs ever youngand fresh, like the herbs of the field. He is a most high god. We, hispeople, praise him. "

Four temple attendants brought sticks and leaves, while Felix stoodstill, half dazed with the newness of these strange preparations. TheKing of Fire, with his torch, set light to the pile. It blazed merrily onhigh. "I, Fire, salute you, " he cried, bending over it toward Felix. 

"Now cut up the body of Lavita, the son of Sami, " he went on, turningtoward it contemptuously. "I will cook it in my flame, that Tu-Kila-Kilathe great may eat of it. "

Felix drew back with a face all aglow with horror and disgust. "Don'ttouch that body!" he cried, authoritatively, putting his foot down firm. "Leave it alone at once. I refuse to allow you. " Then he turned toM. Peyron. "The King of the Birds and I, " he said, with calm resolve, "wetwo will bury it. "

The King of Fire drew back at these strange words, nonplussed. Thiswas, indeed, an ill-omened break in the ceremony of initiation of a newTu-Kila-Kila, to which he had never before in his life been accustomed. He hardly knew how to comport himself under such singular circumstances. It was as though the sovereign of England, on coronation-day, shouldrefuse to be crowned, and intimate to the archbishop, in his fullcanonicals, a confirmed preference for the republican form of Government. It was a contingency that law and custom in Boupari had neither, in theirwisdom, foreseen nor provided for. 

The King of Water whispered low in the new god's ear. "You must eat ofhis body, my lord, " he said. "That is absolutely necessary. Every one ofus must eat of the flesh of the god; but you, above all, must eat hisheart, his divine nature. Otherwise you can never be full Tu-Kila-Kila. "

"I don't care a straw for that, " Felix cried, now aroused to a full senseof the break in Methuselah's story and trembling with apprehension. "Youmay kill me if you like; we can die only once; but human flesh I cannever taste; nor will I, while I live, allow you to touch this dead man'sbody. We will bury it ourselves, the King of the Birds and I. You maytell your people so. That is my last word. " He raised his voice to thecustomary ceremonial pitch. "I, the new Tu-Kila-Kila, " he said, "havespoken it. "

The King of Fire and the King of Water, taken aback at his boldness, conferred together for some seconds privately. The people meanwhilelooked on and wondered. What could this strange hitch in the divineproceedings mean? Was the god himself recalcitrant? Never in their liveshad the oldest men among them known anything like it. 

And as they whispered and debated, awe-struck but discordant, a shoutarose once more from the outer circle--a mighty shout of mingledsurprise, alarm, and terror. "Taboo! Taboo! Fence the mysteries. Beware!Oh, great god, we warn you. The mysteries are in danger! Cut her down!Kill her! A woman! A woman!"

At the words, Felix was aware of somebody bursting through the densecrowd and rushing wildly toward him. Next moment, Muriel hung and sobbedon his shoulder, while Mali, just behind her, stood crying and moaning. 

Felix held the poor startled girl in his arms and soothed her. Andall around another great cry arose from five hundred lips: "Two womenhave profaned the mysteries of the god. They are Tu-Kila-Kila'strespass-offering. Let us kill them and eat them!"

CHAPTER XXX. 

SUSPENSE. 

In a moment, Felix's mind was fully made up. There was no time to think;it was the hour for action. He saw how he must comport himself towardthis strange wild people. Seating Muriel gently on the ground, Malibeside her, and stepping forward himself, with Peyron's hand in his, hebeckoned to the vast and surging crowd to bespeak respectful silence. 

A mighty hush fell at once upon the people. The King of Fire and the Kingof Water stood back, obedient to his nod. They waited for the upshot ofthis strange new development. 

"Men of Boupari, " Felix began, speaking with a marvellous fluency intheir own tongue, for the excitement itself supplied him with eloquence;"I have killed your late god in the prescribed way; I have plucked thesacred bough, and fought in single combat by the established rules ofyour own religion. Fire and Water, you guardians of this holy island, isit not so? You saw all things done, did you not, after the precepts ofyour ancestors?"

The King of Fire bowed low and answered: "Tu-Kila-Kila speaks, indeed, the truth. Water and I, with our own eyes, have seen it. "

"And now, " Felix went on, "I am myself, by your own laws, Tu-Kila-Kila. "

The King of Fire made a gesture of dissent. "Oh, great god, pardon me, "he murmured, "if I say aught, now, to contradict you; but you are not afull Tu-Kila-Kila yet till you have eaten of the heart of the god, yourpredecessor. "

"Then where is now the spirit of Tu-Kila-Kila, the very high god, if I amnot he?" Felix asked, abruptly, thus puzzling them with a hard problem intheir own savage theology. 

The King of Fire gave a start, and pondered. This was a detail of hiscreed that had never before so much as occurred to him. All faiths havetheir _cruces_. "I do not well know, " he answered, "whether it is in theheart of Lavita, the son of Sami, or in your own body. But I feel sure itmust now be certainly somewhere, though just where our fathers have nevertold us. "

Felix recognized at once that he had gained a point. "Then look to itwell, " he said, austerely. "Be careful how you act. Do nothing rash. Foreither the soul of the god is in the heart of Lavita, the son of Sami;and then, since I refuse to eat it, it will decay away, as Lavita's bodydecays, and the world will shrivel up, and all things will perish, because the god is dead and crumbled to dust forever. Or else it is in mybody, who am god in his place; and then, if anybody does me harm or hurt, he will be an impious wretch, and will have broken taboo, and Heavenknows what evils and misfortunes may not, therefore, fall on each and allof you. "

A very old chief rose from the ranks outside. His hair was white andhis eyes bleared. "Tu-Kila-Kila speaks well, " he cried, in a loud butmumbling voice. "His words are wise. He argues to the point. He is verycunning. I advise you, my people, to be careful how you anger thewhite-faced stranger, for you know what he is; he is cruel; he ispowerful. There was never any storm in my time--and I am an old man--sogreat in Boupari as the storm that rose when the King of the Rain ate thestorm-apple. Our yams and our taros even now are suffering from it. He isa mighty strong god. Beware how you tamper with him!"

He sat down, trembling. A younger chief rose from a nearer rank, andsaid his say in turn. "I do not agree with our father, " he cried, pointing to the chief who had just spoken. "His word is evil; he is muchmistaken. I have another thought. My thought is this. Let us kill and eatthe white-faced stranger at once, by wager of battle; and let whosoeverfights and overcomes him receive his honors, and take to wife the fairwoman, the Queen of the Clouds, the sun-faced Korong, whom he broughtfrom the sun with him. "

"But who will then be Tu-Kila-Kila?" Felix asked, turning round upon himquickly. Habituation to danger had made him unnaturally alert in suchutmost extremities. 

"Why, the man who slays you, " the young chief answered, pointedly, grasping his heavy tomahawk with profound expression. 

"I think not, " Felix answered. "Your reasoning is bad. For if I am notTu-Kila-Kila, how can any man become Tu-Kila-Kila by killing me? And if Iam Tu-Kila-Kila, how dare you, not being yourself Korong, and not havingbroken off the sacred bough, as I did, venture to attack me? You wish toset aside all the customs of Boupari. Are you not ashamed of such grossimpiety?"

"Tu-Kila-Kila speaks well, " the King of Fire put in, for he had no causeto love the aggressive young chief, and he thought better of his chancesin life as Felix's minister. "Besides, now I think of it, he _must_ beTu-Kila-Kila, because he has taken the life of the last great god, whomhe slew with his hands; and therefore the life is now his--he holds it. "

Felix was emboldened by this favorable opinion to strike out a fresh linein a further direction. He stood forward once more, and beckoned againfor silence. "Yes, my people, " he said calmly, with slow articulation, "by the custom of your race and the creed you profess I am now indeed, and in every truth, the abode of your great god, Tu-Kila-Kila. But, furthermore, I have a new revelation to make to you. I am going toinstruct you in a fresh way. This creed that you hold is full of errors. As Tu-Kila-Kila, I mean to take my own course, no islander hindering me. If you try to depose me, what great gods have you now got left? None, save only Fire and Water, my ministers. King of the Rain there is none;for I, who was he, am now Tu-Kila-Kila. Tu-Kila-Kila there is none, saveonly me; for the other, that was, I have fought and conquered. The Queenof the Clouds is with me. The King of the Birds is with me. Consider, then, O friends, that if you kill us all, you will have nowhere to turn;you will be left quite godless. "

"It is true, " the people murmured, looking about them, half puzzled. "Heis wise. He speaks well. He is indeed a Tu-Kila-Kila. "

Felix pressed his advantage home at once. "Now listen, " he said, liftingup one solemn forefinger. "I come from a country very far away, where thecustoms are better by many yams than those of Boupari. And now that I amindeed Tu-Kila-Kila--your god, your master--I will change and alter someof your customs that seem to me here and now most undesirable. In thefirst place--hear this!--I will put down all cannibalism. No man shalleat of human flesh on pain of death. And to begin with, no man shall cookor eat the body of Lavita, the son of Sami. On that I am determined--I, Tu-Kila-Kila. The King of the Birds and I, we will dig a pit, and we willbury in it the corpse of this man that was once your god, and whom hisown wickedness compelled me to fight and slay, in order to prevent morecruelty and bloodshed. "

The young chief stood up, all red in his wrath, and interrupted him, brandishing a coral-stone hatchet. "This is blasphemy, " he said. "This issheer rank blasphemy. These are not good words. They are very badmedicine. The white-faced Korong is no true Tu-Kila-Kila. His adviceis evil--and ill-luck would follow it. He wishes to change the sacredcustoms of Boupari. Now, that is not well. My counsel is this: let us eathim now, unless he changes his heart, and amends his ways, and partakes, as is right, of the body of Lavita, the son of Sami. "

The assembly swayed visibly, this way and that, some inclining to theconservative view of the rash young chief, and others to the cautiousliberalism of the gray-haired warrior. Felix noted their division, andspoke once more, this time still more authoritatively than ever. 

"Furthermore, " he said, "my people, hear me. As I came in a shippropelled by fire over the high waves of the sea, so I go away in one. Wewatch for such a ship to pass by Boupari. When it comes, the Queen of theClouds--upon whose life I place a great Taboo; let no man dare to touchher at his peril; if he does, I will rush upon him and kill him as Ikilled Lavita, the son of Sami. When it comes, the Queen of the Clouds, the King of the Birds, and I, we will go away back in it to the landwhence we came, and be quit of Boupari. But we will not leave it firelessor godless. When I return back home again to my own far land, I will sendout messengers, very good men, who will tell you of a God more powerfulby much than any you ever knew, and very righteous. They will teach yougreat things you never dreamed of. Therefore, I ask you now to disperseto your own homes, while the King of Birds and I bury the body of Lavita, the son of Sami. "

All this time Muriel had been seated on the ground, listening withprofound interest, but scarcely understanding a word, though here andthere, after her six months' stay in the island, a single phrase wasdimly intelligible to her. But now, at this critical moment she rose, and, standing upright by Felix's side in her spotless English purityamong those assembled savages, she pointed just once with her upliftedfinger to the calm vault of heaven, and then across the moonlit horizonof the sea, and last of all to the clustering huts and villages ofBoupari. "Tell them, " she said to Felix, with blanched lips, but withoutone sign of a tremor in her fearless voice, "I will pray for them toHeaven, when I go across the sea, and will think of the children that Iloved to pat and play with, and will send out messengers from our homebeyond the waves, to make them wiser and happier and better. "

Felix translated her simple message to them in its pure womanlygoodness. Even the natives were touched. They whispered and hesitated. Then after a time of much murmured debate, the King of Fire stood forwardas a mediator. "There is an oracle, O Korong, " he said, "not to prejudgethe matter, which decides all these things--a great conch-shell at asacred grove in the neighboring island of Aloa Mauna. It is the holiestoracle of all our holy religion. We gods and men of Boupari have takencounsel together, and have come to a conclusion. We will put forth acanoe and send men with blood on their faces to inquire at Aloa Mauna ofthe very great oracle. Till then, you are neither Tu-Kila-Kila, nor notTu-Kila-Kila. It behooves us to be very careful how we deal with gods. Our people will stand round your precinct in a row, and guard you withtheir spears. You shall not cross the taboo line to them, nor they toyou: all shall be neutral. Food shall be laid by the line, as always, morn, noon, and night; and your Shadows shall take it in; but you shallnot come out. Neither shall you bury the body of Lavita, the son of Sami. Till the canoe comes back it shall lie in the sun and rot there. "

He clapped his hands twice. 

In a moment a tom-tom began to beat from behind, and the people allcrowded without the circle. The King of Fire came forward ostentatiouslyand made taboo. "If, any man cross this line, " he said in a droningsing-song, "till the canoe return from the great oracle of our faith onAloa Mauna, I, Fire, will scorch him into cinder and ashes. If any womantransgress, I will pitch her with palm oil, and light her up for a lampon a moonless night to lighten this temple. "

The King of Water distributed shark's-tooth spears. At once a greatserried wall hemmed in the Europeans all round, and they sat down towait, the three whites together, for the upshot of the mission to AloaMauna. 

And the dawn now gleamed red on the eastern horizon. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

AT SEA: OFF BOUPARI. 

Thirteen days out from Sydney, the good ship Australasian was nearing theequator. 

It was four of the clock in the afternoon, and the captain (off duty)paced the deck, puffing a cigar, and talking idly with a passenger onformer experiences. 

Eight bells went on the quarter-deck; time to change watches. 

"This is only our second trip through this channel, " the captainsaid, gazing across with a casual glance at the palm-trees thatstood dark against the blue horizon. "We used to go a hundred milesto eastward, here, to avoid the reefs. But last voyage I camethrough this way quite safely--though we had a nasty accident on theroad--unavoidable--unavoidable! Big sea was running free over thesunken shoals; caught the ship aft unawares, and stove in better thanhalf a dozen portholes. Lady passenger on deck happened to be leaningover the weather gunwale; big sea caught her up on its crest in a jiffy, lifted her like a baby, and laid her down again gently, just so, on thebed of the ocean. By George, sir, I was annoyed. It was quite a romance, poor thing; quite a romance; we all felt so put out about it the restof that voyage. Young fellow on board, nephew of Sir Theodore Thurstan, of the Colonial Office, was in love with Miss Ellis--girl's name wasEllis--father's a parson somewhere down in Somersetshire--and as soon asthe big sea took her up on its crest, what does Thurstan go and do, buthe ups on the taffrail, and, before you could say Jack Robinson, jumpsover to save her. "

"But he didn't succeed?" the passenger asked, with languid interest. 

"Succeed, my dear sir? and with a sea running twelve feet high like that?Why, it was pitch dark, and such a surf on that the gig could hardly gothrough it. " The captain smiled, and puffed away pensively. "Drowned, "he said, after a brief pause, with complacent composure. "Drowned. Drowned. Drowned. Went to the bottom, both of 'em. Davy Jones's locker. But unavoidable, quite. These accidents _will_ happen, even on thebest-regulated liners. Why, there was my brother Tom, in the Cunardservice--same that boast they never lost a passenger; there was mybrother Tom, he was out one day off the Newfoundland banks, heavy swellsetting in from the nor'-nor'-east, icebergs ahead, passengers batteneddown--Bless my soul, how that light seems to come and go, don't it?"

It was a reflected light, flashing from the island straight in thecaptain's eyes, small and insignificant as to size, but strong for allthat in the full tropical sunshine, and glittering like a diamond from avague elevation near the centre of the island. 

"Seems to come and go in regular order, " the passenger observed, reflectively, withdrawing his cigar. "Looks for all the world just likenaval signalling. "

The captain paused, and shaded his eyes a moment. "Hanged if that isn'tjust what it _is_, " he answered, slowly. "It's a rigged-up heliograph, and they're using the Morse code; dash my eyes if they aren't. Well, this_is_ civilization! What the dickens can have come to the island ofBoupari? There isn't a darned European soul in the place, nor ever hasbeen. Anchorage unsafe; no harbor; bad reef; too small for missionariesto make a living, and natives got nothing worth speaking of to trade in. "

"What do they say?" the passenger asked, with suddenly quickenedinterest. 

"How the devil should I tell you yet, sir?" the captain retorted withcholeric grumpiness. "Don't you see I'm spelling it out, letter byletter? O, r, e, s, c, u, e, u, s, c, o, m, e, w, e, l, l, a, r, m, e, d--Yes. Yes, I twig it. " And the captain jotted it down in his note-bookfor some seconds, silently. 

"Run up the flag there, " he shouted, a moment later, rushing hastilyforward. "Stop her at once, Walker. Easy, easy. Get ready the gig. Well, upon my soul, there _is_ a rum start anyway. "

"What does the message say?" the passenger inquired, with intensesurprise. 

"Say? Well, there's what I make it out, " the captain answered, handinghim the scrap of paper on which he had jotted down the letters. "I missedthe beginning, but the end's all right. Look alive there, boys, will you. Bring out the Winchester. Take cutlasses, all hands. I'll go along myselfin her. "

The passenger took the piece of paper on which he read, "and send a boatto rescue us. Come well armed. Savages on guard. Thurstan, Ellis. "

In less than three minutes the boat was lowered and manned, and thecaptain, with the Winchester six-shooter by his side, seated grim in thestern, took command of the tiller. 

On the island it was the first day of Felix and Muriel's imprisonment inthe dusty precinct of Tu-Kila-Kila's temple. All the morning through, they had sat under the shade of a smaller banyan in the outer corner; forMuriel could neither enter the noisome hut nor go near the great treewith the skeletons on its branches; nor could she sit where the deadsavage's body, still festering in the sun, attracted the buzzing blueflies by thousands, to drink up the blood that lay thick on the earth ina pool around it. Hard by, the natives sat, keen as lynxes, in a greatcircle just outside the white taboo-line, where, with serried spears, they kept watch and ward over the persons of their doubtful gods orvictims. M. Peyron, alone preserving his equanimity under these adversecircumstances, hummed low to himself in very dubious tones; even hefelt his French gayety had somewhat forsaken him; this revolution inBoupari failed to excite his Parisian ardor. 

About one o'clock in the day, however, looking casually seaward--what wasthis that M. Peyron, to his great surprise, descried far away on the dimsouthern horizon? A low black line, lying close to the water? No, no; nota steamer!

Too prudent to excite the natives' attention unnecessarily, thecautious Frenchman whispered, in the most commonplace voice on earth toFelix: "Don't look at once; and when you do look, mind you don't exhibitany agitation in your tone or manner. But what do you make that out tobe--that long black haze on the horizon to southward?"

Felix looked, disregarding the friendly injunction, at once. At the samemoment, Muriel turned her eyes quickly in the self-same direction. Neither made the faintest sign of outer emotion; but Muriel clenched herwhite hands hard, till the nails dug into the palm, in her effort torestrain herself, as she murmured very low, in an agitated voice, "_Unvapeur, un vapeur_!"

"So I think, " M. Peyron answered, very low and calm. "It is, indeed, asteamer!"

For three long hours those anxious souls waited and watched it drawnearer and nearer. Slowly the natives, too, began to perceive theunaccustomed object. As it drew abreast of the island, and the decisivemoment arrived for prompt action, Felix rose in his place once moreand cried aloud, "My people, I told you a ship, propelled by fire, wouldcome from the far land across the sea to take us. The ship has come; youcan see for yourselves the thick black smoke that issues in huge puffsfrom the mouth of the monster. Now, listen to me, and dare not to disobeyme. My word is law; let all men see to it. I am going to send a messageof fire from the sun to the great canoe that walks upon the water. If anyman ventures to stop me from doing it the people from the great canoewill land on this isle and take vengeance for his act, and kill with thethunder which the sailing gods carry ever about with them. "

By this time the island was alive with commotion. Hundreds of natives, with their long hair falling unkempt about their keen brown faces, were gazing with open eyes at the big black ship that ploughed her wayso fast against wind and tide over the surface of the waters. Some ofthem shouted and gesticulated with panic fear; others seemed halfinclined to waste no time on preparation or doubt, but to rush on atonce, and immolate their captives before a rescue was possible. ButFelix, keeping ever his cool head undisturbed, stood on the dusty moundby Tu-Kila-Kila's house, and taking in his hand the little mirror he hadmade from the match-box, flashed the light from the sun full in theireyes for a moment, to the astonishment and discomfiture of all thosegaping savages. Then he focussed it on the Australasian, across the surfand the waves, and with a throbbing heart began to make his last faintbid for life and freedom. 

For four or five minutes he went flashing on, uncertain of the effect, whether they saw or saw not. Then a cry from Muriel burst at once uponhis ears. She clasped her hands convulsively in an agony of joy. "Theysee us! They see us!"

And sure enough, scarcely half a minute later, a British flag ran gaylyup the mainmast, and a boat seemed to drop down over the side of thevessel. 

As for the natives, they watched these proceedings with considerablesurprise and no little discomfiture--Fire and Water, in particular, whispering together, much alarmed, with many superstitious nods andtaboos, in the corner of the enclosure. 

Gradually, as the boat drew nearer and nearer, divided counsels prevailedamong the savages. With no certainly recognized Tu-Kila-Kila to marshaltheir movements, each man stood in doubt from whom to take his orders. Atlast, the King of Fire, in a hesitating voice, gave the word of command. "Half the warriors to the shore to repel the enemy; half to watch roundthe taboo-line, lest the Korongs escape us! Let Breathless Fear, ourwar-god, go before the face of our troops, invisible!"

And, quick as thought, at his word, the warriors had paired off, two andtwo, in long lines; some running hastily down to the beach, to man thewar-canoes, while others remained, with shark's tooth spears still set ina looser circle, round the great temple-enclosure of Tu-Kila-Kila. 

For Muriel, this suspense was positively terrible. To feel one was soclose to the hope of rescue, and yet to know that before that helparrived, or even as it came up, those savages might any moment run theirghastly spears through them. 

But Felix made the best of his position still. "Remember, " he cried, atthe top of his voice, as the warriors started at a run for the water'sedge, "your Tu-Kila-Kila tells you, these new-comers are his friends. Whoever hurts them, does so at his peril. This is a great Taboo. I bidyou receive them. Beware for your lives. I, Tu-Kila-Kila the Great, havesaid it. "

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE DOWNFALL OF A PANTHEON. 

The Australasian's gig entered the lagoon through the fringing reef byits narrow seaward mouth, and rowed steadily for the landing place on themain island. 

A little way out from shore, amid loud screams and yells, the nativescame up with it in their laden war-canoes. Shouting and gesticulating andbrandishing their spears with the shark's tooth tips, they endeavored tostop its progress landward by pure noise and bravado. 

"We must be careful what we do, boys, " the captain observed, in a quietvoice of seamanlike resolution to his armed companions. "We mustn'tfrighten the savages too much, or show too hostile a front, for fear theyshould retaliate on our friends on the island. " He held up his hand, withthe gold braid on the wrist, to command silence; and the natives, gazingopen-mouthed, looked and wondered at the gesture. These sailing gods werecertainly arrayed in most gorgeous vestments, and their canoe, thoughdevoid of a grinning figure-head, was provided with a most admirable andwell-uniformed equipment. 

A coral rock jutted high out of the sea to the left hard by. Its summitwas crowded with a basking population of sea-gulls and pelicans. Thecaptain gave the word to "easy all. " In a second the gig stopped short, as those stout arms held her. He rose in his place and lifted thesix-shooter. Then he pointed it ostentatiously at the rock, away from thenative canoes, and held up his hand yet again for silence. "We'll give'em a taste of what we can do, boys, " he said, "just to show 'em, not tohurt 'em. " At that he drew the trigger twice. His first two chambers wereloaded on purpose with duck-shot cartridges. Twice the big gun roared;twice the fire flashed red from its smoking mouth. As the smoke clearedaway, the natives, dumb with surprise, and perfectly cowed with terror, saw ten or a dozen torn and bleeding birds float mangled upon the water. 

"Now for the dynamite!" the captain said, cheerily, proceeding to lower asmall object overboard by a single wire, while he held up his hand athird time to bespeak silence and attention. 

The natives looked again, with eyes starting from their heads. Thecaptain gave a little click, and pointed with his finger to a spot onthe water's top, a little way in front of him. Instantly, a loud report, and a column of water spurted up into the air, some ten or twelve feet, in a boisterous fountain. As it subsided again, a hundred or so of thebright-colored fish that browse among the submerged, coral-groves ofthese still lagoons, rose dead or dying to the seething, boiling surface. 

The captain smiled. Instantly the natives set up a terrified shout. "It is even as he said, " they cried. "These gods are his ministers!The white-faced Korong is a very great deity! He is indeed the trueTu-Kila-Kila. These gods have come for him. They are very mighty. Thunderand lightning and waterspouts are theirs. The waves do as they bid. Thesea obeys them. They are here to take away our Tu-Kila-Kila from ourmidst. And what will then become of the island of Boupari? Will it notsink in the waves of the sea and disappear? Will not the sun in heavengrow dark, and the moon cease to shed its benign light on the earth, whenTu-Kila-Kila the Great returns at last to his own far country?"

"That lot'll do for 'em, I expect, " the captain said cheerily, with aconfident smile. "Now forward all, boys. I fancy we've astonished thenatives a trifle. "

They rowed on steadily, but cautiously, toward the white bank of sandwhich formed the usual landing-place, the captain holding the six-shooterin readiness all the time, and keeping an eye firmly fixed on everymovement of the savages. But the warriors in the canoes, thoroughly cowedand overawed by this singular exhibition of the strangers' prowess, paddled on in whispering silence, nearly abreast of the gig, but at asafe distance, as they thought, and eyed the advancing Europeans withquiet looks of unmixed suspicion. 

At last, the adventurous young chief, who had advised killing Felixoff-hand on the island, mustered up courage to paddle his own canoe alittle nearer, and flung his spear madly in the direction of the gig. Itfell short by ten yards. He stood eying it angrily. But the captain, grimly quiet, raising his Winchester to his shoulder without one second'sdelay, and marking his man, fired at the young chief as he stood, stillhalf in the attitude of throwing, on the prow of his canoe, an easy aimfor fire-arms. The ball went clean through the savage's breast, and thenricochetted three times on the water afar off. The young chief fell stonedead into the sea like a log, and sank instantly to the bottom. 

It was a critical moment. The captain felt uncertain whether the nativeswould close round them in force or not. It is always dangerous to fire ashot at savages. But the Boupari men were too utterly awed to venture ondefence. "He was Tu-Kila-Kila's enemy, " they cried, in astonished tones. "He raised his voice against the very high god. Therefore, the very highgod's friends have smitten him with their lightning. Their thunderboltwent through him, and hit the water beyond. How strong is their hand!They can kill from afar. They are mighty gods. Let no man strive to fightagainst the friends of Tu-Kila-Kila. "

The sailors rowed on and reached the landing-place. There, half of them, headed by the captain, disembarked in good order, with drawn cutlasses, while the other half remained behind to guard the gig, under the thirdofficer. The natives also disembarked, a little way off, and, makinghumble signs of submission with knee and arm, endeavored, by pantomime, to express the idea of their willingness to guide the strangers to theirfriends' quarters. 

The captain waved them on with his hand. The natives, reassured, led theway, at some distance ahead, along the paths through the jungle. Thecaptain had his finger on his six-shooter the while; every sailor graspedhis cutlass and kept his revolver ready for action. "I don't half likethe look of it, " the captain observed, partly to himself. "They seem tobe leading us into an ambuscade or something. Keep a sharp lookoutagainst surprise from the jungle, boys; and if any native shows fightshoot him down instantly. "

At last they emerged upon a clear space in the front, where a great groupof savages stood in a circle, with serried spears, round a large wattledhut that occupied the elevated centre of the clearing. 

For a minute or two the action of the savages was uncertain. Half of thedefenders turned round to face the invaders angrily; the other half stoodirresolute, with their spears still held inward, guarding a white line ofsand with inflexible devotion. 

The warriors who had preceded them from the shore called aloud to theirfriends by the temple in startled tones. The captain and sailors had noidea what their words meant. But just then, from the midst of the circle, an English voice cried out in haste, "Don't fire! Do nothing rash! We'resafe. Don't be frightened. The natives are disposed to parley andpalaver. Take care how you act. They're terribly afraid of you. "

Just outside the taboo-line the captain halted. The gray-headed oldchief, who had accompanied his fellows to the shore, spoke out inPolynesian. "Do not resist them, " he said, "my people. If you do, youwill be blasted by their lightning like a bare bamboo in a mightycyclone. They carry thunder in their hands. They are mighty, mighty gods. The white-faced Korong spoke no more than the truth. Let them do as theywill with us. We are but their meat. We are as dust beneath their sole, and as driven mulberry-leaves before the breath of the tempest. "

The defenders hesitated still a little. Then, suddenly losing heart, theybroke rank at last at a point close by where the captain of theAustralasian stood, one man after another falling aside slowly andshamefacedly a pace or two. The captain, unhesitatingly, overstepped thewhite taboo-line. Next instant, Felix and Muriel were grasping his handhard, and M. Peyron was bowing a polite Parisian reception. 

Forthwith, the sailors crowded round them in a hollow square. Muriel andFelix, half faint with relief from their long and anxious suspense, staggered slowly down the seaward path between them. But there was noneed now for further show of defence. The islanders, pressing near andflinging away their weapons, followed the procession close, with tearsand lamentations. As they went on, the women, rushing out of their hutswhile the fugitives passed, tore their hair on their heads, and beattheir breasts in terror. The warriors who had come from the shorerecounted, with their own exaggerative additions, the miracle of thesix-shooter and the dynamite cartridge. Gradually they approached thelanding-place on the beach. There the third officer sat waiting in thegig to receive them. The lamentations of the islanders now becamepositively poignant. "Oh, my father, " they cried aloud, "my brother, myrevered one, you are indeed the true Tu-Kila-Kila. Do not go away likethis and desert us! Oh, our mother, great queen, mighty goddess, stopwith us! Take not away your sun from the heavens, nor your rain from thecrops. We acknowledge we have sinned; we have done very wrong; but thechief sinner is dead; the wrong-doer has paid; spare us who remain; spareus, great deity; do not make the bright lights of heaven become dark overus. Stay with your worshippers, and we will give you choice young girlsto eat every day, we will sacrifice the tenderest of our children to feedyou. "

It is an awful thing for any race or nation when its taboos fail all atonce, and die out entirely. To the men of Boupari, the Tu-Kila-Kila ofthe moment represented both the Moral Order and the regular sequence ofthe physical universe. Anarchy and chaos might rule when he was gone. Thesun might be quenched, and the people run riot. No wonder they shrankfrom the fearful consequence that might next ensue. King and priest, godand religion, all at one fell blow were to be taken away from them!

Felix turned round on the shore and spoke to them again. "My people, " hesaid, in a kindly tone--for, after all, he pitied them--"you need have nofear. When I am gone, the sun will still shine and the trees will stillbear fruit every year as formerly. I will send the messengers I promisedfrom my own land to teach you. Until they come, I leave you this as agreat Taboo. Tu-Kila-Kila enjoins it. Shed no human blood; eat no humanflesh. Those who do will be punished when another fire-canoe comes fromthe far land to bring my messengers. "

The King of Fire bent low at the words. "Oh, Tu-Kila-Kila, " he said, "itshall be done as you say. Till your messengers come, every man shall liveat peace with all his neighbors. "

They stepped into the gig. Mali and Toko followed before M. Peyron asnaturally as they had always followed their masters on the island before. 

"Who are these?" the captain asked, smiling. 

"Our Shadows, " Felix answered. "Let them come. I will pay their passagewhen I reach San Francisco. They have been very faithful to us, and theyare afraid to remain, lest the islanders should kill them for letting usgo or for not accompanying us. "

"Very well, " the captain answered. "Forward all, there, boys! Now, aheadfor the ship. And thank God, we're well out of it!"

But the islanders still stood on the shore and wept, stretching theirhands in vain after the departing boat, and crying aloud in piteoustones, "Oh, my father, return! Oh, my mother, come back! Oh, very greatgods, do not fly and desert us!"

Seven weeks later Mr. And Mrs. Felix Thurstan, who had been married inthe cathedral at Honolulu the very morning the Australasian arrivedthere, sat in an eminently respectable drawing-room in a London square, where Mrs. Ellis, Muriel's aunt by marriage, was acting as their hostess. 

"But how dreadful it is to think, dear, " Mrs. Ellis remarked for thetwentieth time since their arrival, with a deep-drawn sigh, "how dreadfulto think that you and Felix should have been all those months alone onthe island together without being married!"

Muriel looked up with a quiet smile toward Felix. "I think, Aunt Mary, "she said, dreamily, "if you'd been there yourself, and suffered all thosefears, and passed through all those horrors that we did together, you'dhave troubled your head very little indeed about such conventionalities, as whether or not you happened to be married. . . . Besides, " she added, after a pause, with a fine perception of the inexorable stringency ofMrs. Grundy's law, "we weren't quite without chaperons, either, don't youknow; for our Shadows, of course, were always with us. "

Whereat Felix smiled an equally quiet smile. "And terrible as it allwas, " he put in, "I shall never regret it, because it made Muriel knowhow profoundly I loved her, and it made me know how brave and trustfuland pure a woman could be under such awful conditions. "

But Mrs. Ellis sat still in her chair and smiled uncomfortably. Itaffected her spirits. Taboos, after all, are much the same in England asin Boupari.