me.

Putting down my pipe on the mat beside me, I told old Kaibnka that I
desired to talk to them.

There was a dead silence at once.

"_E rai rai_" ("Good"), he said.

"Kaibuka," I said, "hath the dead white man been taken to his wife?"

He looked stolidly at me for an instant, and then answered with an air
of intense surprise.

"Dead white man! What dead white man, Simi? _I_ know of none. We saw no
dead white man!"

"Aye, we know of none," echoed the others in unison.

I began to feel both angry and uncomfortable, and showed it: but for
the moment I was too puzzled to do more than stare at them each in turn.
They looked straight before them as if their faces were so many stone
jugs--they had about as much expression.

Again I addressed myself to Kaibnka.

"Why do ye make this pretence? Thou thyself, Kaibnka, and thou, Berau,
were, with many others, in my house when his dead body lay on the floor.
Why are ye all so silent? And whither have the girl Niabon and Tematau
gone?"

This time I got an answer--to my last question, at any rate.

"Niabon and Tematau have gone across the lagoon in a canoe. They desired
to talk with the white man's wife. In a little time, as darkness falls,
they will return to thee."

"Did _they_ take the dead man with them, then?" I persisted.

The old fellow met my inquiring glance quite calmly. "I know of no dead
man, Simi."

I glared angrily at them all round, and then for a moment wondered if
they were all crazy or I alone was wrong in my head. I was rising to
my feet with an exclamation of anger at their obstinacy when the old
bald-head motioned me to stay. Then at a sign from him all the others
gathered up their _impedimenta_ and quietly went off in Tarions
directions, leaving us alone.

"Simi," he said, coming swiftly over and crouching in front of me, "be
wise. Ask no one of the white man who was here yesterday; for no one
will tell thee but Niabon. There is death in store for many, many
people, if ye heed not my words. Go back to thy house, and be patient
and wait, and ask naught of any one but Niabon of what is past. Wouldst
thou see this land soaked in blood because of _one_ man?"

He spoke in such curious, whispered tones, and kept his keen hawk-like
face so close to mine that I saw he was in deadly earnest.

"Promise me, Simi. Promise me to rest in thy house and wait for Niabon."

"As you will, I shall wait."

I walked slowly back to my house and took a sti