y, she
would picture him standing all alone in the moonlight or starlight
staring straight before him.

He seemed for ever listening; unconsciously one fell to listening too,
and then the valley seemed steeped in a supernatural silence. He was
not good to be alone with.

Emmeline sat down amidst the fears just at his base. When one was close
up to him he lost the suggestion of life, and was simply a great stone
which cast a shadow in the sun.

Dick threw himself down also to rest. Then he rose up and went off
amidst the guava bushes, plucking the fruit and filling his basket.
Since he had seen the schooner, the white men on her decks, her great
masts and sails, and general appearance of freedom and speed and
unknown adventure, he had been more than ordinarily glum and restless.
Perhaps he connected her in his mind with the far-away vision of the
Northumberland, and the idea of other places and lands, and the
yearning for change [that] the idea of them inspired.

He came back with his basket full of the ripe fruit, gave some to the
girl and sat down beside her. When she had finished eating them she
took the cane that he used for carrying the basket and held it in her
hands. She was bending it in the form of a bow when it slipped, flew
out and struck her companion a sharp blow on the side of his face.

Almost on the instant he turned and slapped her on the shoulder. She
stared at him for a moment in troubled amazement, a sob came in her
throat. Then some veil seemed lifted, some wizard's wand stretched out,
some mysterious vial broken. As she looked at him like that, he
suddenly and fiercely clasped her in his arms. He held her like this
for a moment, dazed, stupefied, not knowing what to do with her. Then
her lips told him, for they met his in an endless kiss.

CHAPTER IX

THE SLEEP OF PARADISE

The moon rose up that evening and shot her silver arrows at the house
under the artu tree. The house was empty. Then the moon came across the
sea and across the reef.

She lit the lagoon to its dark, dim heart. She lit the coral brains and
sand spaces, and the fish, casting their shadows on the sand and the
coral. The keeper of the lagoon rose to greet her, and the fin of him
broke her reflection on the mirror-like surface into a thousand
glittering ripples. She saw the white staring ribs of the form on the
reef. Then, peeping over the trees, she looked down into the valley,
where the great idol of stone had