ee a ship to-day, I don't believe they'd
allow us to signal it."

There was a red sunset; a lurid, tropical, red-and-green sunset. It boded
mischief.

They were passing by some huts at the moment, and over the stockade of
one of them a tree was hanging with small yellow fruits, which Felix knew
well in Fiji as wholesome and agreeable. He broke off a small branch as
he passed; and offered a couple thoughtlessly to Muriel. She took them in
her fingers, and tasted them gingerly. "They're not so bad," she said,
taking another from the bough. "They're very much like gooseberries."

At the same moment, Felix popped one into his own mouth, and swallowed it
without thinking.

Almost before they knew what had happened, with the same extraordinary
rapidity as in the case of the wedding, the people in the cottages ran
out, with every sign of fear and apprehension, and, seizing the branch
from Felix's hands, began upbraiding the two Shadows for their want
of attention.

"We couldn't help it," Toko exclaimed, with every appearance of guilt and
horror on his face. "They were much too sharp for us. Their hearts are
black. How could we two interfere? These gods are so quick! They had
picked and eaten them before we ever saw them."

One of the men raised his hand with a threatening air--but against the
Shadow, not against the sacred person of Felix. "He will be ill," he
said, angrily, pointing toward the white man; "and she will, too. Their
hearts are indeed black. They have sown the seed of the wind. They have
both of them eaten of it. They will both be ill. You deserve to die! And
what will come now to our trees and plantations?"

The crowd gathered round them, cursing low and horribly. The two
terrified Europeans slunk off to their huts, unaware of their exact
crime, and closely followed by a scowling but despondent mob of natives.
As they crossed their sacred boundary, Muriel cried, with a sudden
outburst of tears, "Oh, Felix, what on earth shall we ever do to get
rid of this terrible, unendurable godship!"

The natives without set up a great shout of horror. "See, see! she
cries!" they exclaimed, in indescribable panic. "She has eaten the
storm-fruit, and already she cries! Oh, clouds, restrain yourselves! Oh,
great queen, mercy! Whatever will become of us and our poor huts
and gardens!"

And for hours they crouched around, beating their breasts and shrieking.

That evening, Muriel sat up late in Felix's hut, with Mali