ows? But certainly through
heaven.

Perhaps the thing which had been the god of some unknown people had
inspired her with the instinct of religion; if so, she was his last
worshipper on earth, for when they entered the valley they found him
lying upon his face. Great blocks of stone lay around him: there had
evidently been a landslip, a catastrophe preparing for ages, and
determined, perhaps, by the torrential rain of the cyclone.

In Ponape, Huahine, in Easter Island, you may see great idols that have
been felled like this, temples slowly dissolving from sight, and
terraces, seemingly as solid as the hills, turning softly and subtly
into shapeless mounds of stone.

CHAPTER XIX

THE EXPEDITION

Next morning the light of day filtering through the trees awakened
Emmeline in the tent which they had improvised whilst the house was
building. Dawn came later here than on the other side of the island
which faced east later, and in a different manner for there is the
difference of worlds between dawn coming over a wooded hill, and dawn
coming over the sea.

Over at the other side, sitting on the sand with the break of the reef
which faced the east before you, scarcely would the east change colour
before the sea-line would be on fire, the sky lit up into an
illimitable void of blue, and the sunlight flooding into the lagoon,
the ripples of light seeming to chase the ripples of water.

On this side it was different. The sky would be dark and full of stars,
and the woods, great spaces of velvety shadow. Then through the leaves
of the artu would come a sigh, and the leaves of the breadfruit would
patter, and the sound of the reef become faint. The land breeze had
awakened, and in a while, as if it had blown them away, looking up, you
would find the stars gone, and the sky a veil of palest blue. In this
indirect approach of dawn there was something ineffably mysterious. One
could see, but the things seen were indecisive and vague, just as they
are in the gloaming of an English summer's day.

Scarcely had Emmeline arisen when Dick woke also, and they went out on
to the sward, and then down to the water's edge. Dick went in for a
swim, and the girl, holding the baby, stood on the bank watching him.

Always after a great storm the weather of the island would become more
bracing and exhilarating, and this morning the air seemed filled with
the spirit of spring. Emmeline felt it, and as she watched the swimmer
disportin