em; that they
were supplied with a clean and fresh-built hut, as well as with brand-new
cocoanut cups, spoons, and platters; that no litter of any sort was
allowed to accumulate near their enclosure; and that their Shadows never
left them, or went out of their sight, by day or by night, for a single
moment. Now, however, he began to perceive also that the Shadows were
there for that very purpose, to watch over them, as it were, like guards,
on behalf of the community; to see that they ate or drank no tabooed
object; to keep them from heedlessly transgressing any unwritten law of
the creed of Boupari; and to be answerable for their good behavior
generally. They were partly servants, it was true, and partly sureties;
but they were partly also keepers, and keepers who kept a close and
constant watch upon the persons of their prisoners. Once or twice Felix,
growing tired for the moment of this continual surveillance, had tried to
give Toko the slip, and to stroll away from his hut, unattended, for a
walk through the island, in the early morning, before his Shadow had
waked; but on each such occasion he found to his surprise that, as he
opened the hut door, the Shadow rose at once and confronted him angrily,
with an inquiring eye; and in time he perceived that a thin string was
fastened to the bottom of the door, the other end of which was tied to
the Shadow's ankle; and this string could not be cut without letting fall
a sort of latch or bar which closed the door outside, only to be raised
again by some external person.

Clearly, it was intended that the Korong should have no chance of escape
without the knowledge of the Shadow, who, as Felix afterward learned,
would have paid with his own body by a cruel death for the Korong's
disappearance.

He might as well have tried to escape his own shadow as to escape the one
the islanders had tacked on to him.

All Felix's energies were now devoted to the arduous task of discovering
what Korong really meant, and what possibility he might have of saving
Muriel from the mysterious fate that seemed to be held in store for them.

One evening, about six weeks after their arrival in the island, the young
Englishman was strolling by himself (after the sun sank low in heaven)
along a pretty tangled hill-side path, overhung with lianas and rope-like
tropical creepers, while his faithful Shadow lingered a step or two
behind, keeping a sharp lookout meanwhile on all his movements.

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