The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Waterfall, by James Francis Dwyer

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Title: The White Waterfall

Author: James Francis Dwyer

Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10862]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE LIBRARY

THREE OWLS EDITION

THE WHITE WATERFALL

An Adventure Story

BY JAMES FRANCIS DWYER

TO L.G.D. and G.M.D.

"THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,
THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,
THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN OUT
OF BLACK FERNANDO'S HELL."

PREFACE

It is perhaps inadvisable to mix fact with fiction, but, it appears,
some reference to certain portions of "The White Waterfall" that might
strain the belief of the average reader will not be out of place. In the
wonderful islands of the Pacific many things happen that seem improbable
to the minds of those who dwell close to the heart of civilization. The
mysterious Isle of Tears is not altogether a dream. There are several
islands in Polynesia that have been looked upon from time immemorial as
islands of the dead. These places are shunned by the islanders, and the
centuries have invested them with the same atmosphere of brooding
mystery that Professor Herndon and his party felt when they landed upon
the silent isle where the Wizards of the Centipede performed their weird
rites without interference from the outside world.

Nor is the Vermilion Pit created out of thin air. The savage has used
many startling methods to separate the born warrior from the coward, and
the author has seen a place just as wonderful as the pit, where the
young men of the tribe were tested in the same manner as that related
in this story. The cunning savage has always thought it inadvisable to
pick his fighting men till their courage had been thoroughly tested, and
in dull days of peace the headmen of the tribes racked their brains to
discover nerve-shaking ordeals to try the daring of the growing youth.
The safety of the tribe depended upon the valour of the fighting line,
and it would have been an