reat ship before a mighty sea--at each onset of the breakers upon the
surrounding fringe-reef. And side by side with it all, to crown their
misery, wild torrents of rain, descending in waterspouts, as it seemed,
or dashed in great sheets against the roof of their frail tenement,
poured fitfully on with fierce tropical energy.

In the midst of the hut Muriel crouched and prayed with bloodless lips to
Heaven. This was too, too terrible. It seemed incredible to her that on
top of all they had been called upon to suffer of fear and suspense at
the hands of the savages, the very dumb forces of nature themselves
should thus be stirred up to open war against them. Her faith in
Providence was sorely tried. Dumb forces, indeed! Why, they roared with
more terrible voices than any wild beast on earth could possibly compass.
The thunder and the wind were howling each other down in emulous din, and
the very hiss of the lightning could be distinctly heard, like some huge
snake, at times above the creaking and snapping of the trees before the
gale in the surrounding forest.

Muriel crouched there long, in the mute misery of utter despair. At her
feet Mali crouched too, as frightened as herself, but muttering aloud
from time to time, in a reproachful voice, "I tell Missy Queenie what
going to happen. I warn her not. I tell her she must not eat that very
bad storm-apple. But Missy Queenie no listen. Her take her own way, then
storm come down upon us."

And Felix's Shadow, in his own tongue, exclaimed more than once in the
self-same tone, half terror, half expostulation, "See now what comes from
breaking taboo? You eat the storm-fruit. The storm-fruit suits ill with
the King of the Rain and the Queen of the Clouds. The heavens have broken
loose. The sea has boiled. See what wind and what flood you are bringing
upon us."

By and by, above even the fierce roar of the mingled thunder and cyclone,
a wild orgy of noise burst upon them all from without the hut. It was a
sound as of numberless drums and tom-toms, all beaten in unison with the
mad energy of fear; a hideous sound, suggestive of some hateful heathen
devil-worship. Muriel clapped her hands to her ears in horror. "Oh,
what's that?" she cried to Felix, at this new addition to their endless
alarms. "Are the savages out there rising in a body? Have they come to
murder us?"

"Perhaps," Felix said, smoothing her hair with his hand, as a mother
might soothe her terrified child, "perh