n of a niche in the Pantheon of Fame, and he could not resist a
desire to prattle childishly about the sensation which his discoveries
would cause. It's a terrible thing for a man to get the applause craving
in its worst form. It is liable to make him do things which no craving
for treasure would allow him to do, no matter how badly he desired the
tempting gold.

The girls retired early, and soon afterward Leith wrapped himself up in
a blanket and lay down at the foot of the tree. The Professor at last
became tired of firing questions at the wonderfully well-informed Soma,
and the Kanaka, finding that the market for legends was not as good as
it was in the early part of the night, retreated to the other fire,
where Kaipi and the fire carriers were slumbering.

The heavy silence that comes in the night to the outposts of the world
fell upon the place like a cold hand at that moment. A moon that
appeared to have a pellicle across it, like the film upon a dead man's
eye, peeped over the barrier of black rocks--peeped over as if it
wondered what we were doing in that God-forgotten quarter. Sudden puffs
of wind rustled the leaves of the maupei and fled hurriedly, and from
somewhere in the coral rocks one of those red-striped lizards that are
sometimes found in the rocky parts of the Carolines sent his unearthly
_shik-shuck_ into the stillness, where one fancied it a little
projectile of sound crushed in its efforts to pierce the tremendous
silence of the night. One's imagination pictured the places where there
were lights and music, the tinkle of glasses, and the laughter of men
and women, and the wilderness suffered in the comparison. Coral atolls
with waving palm trees are delightful spots when one reads of them when
seated in a comfortable armchair in a snug library, but the real island
comes down heavily upon the nerve-centres when night falls upon the
spot. Then the fringe dweller feels that he is an outcast from the warm
places of the world where men and women meet in social intercourse.

Holman, who had been staring in silence at the fire for some twenty
minutes, turned toward me after the Professor had retired.

"Sleepy?" asked the youngster.

"Worse than that," I muttered.

"Let's turn in."

The "turning in" was an easy performance. We lay down on the pile of
leaves which the carriers had scraped together, pulled a rug over us,
and in spite of the surroundings I was soon fast asleep.

It was Holman's fist t