heart of hearts he was most
unspeakably terrified.

"You did not do well, O King of the Rain, last night," he said, after an
interchange of civilities, as becomes great gods. "You have put out even
the sacred flame on the holy hearth of the King of Fire. You have a bad
heart. Why do you use us so?"

"Why do you let your people offer human sacrifices?" Felix answered,
boldly, taking advantage of his position. "They are hateful in our sight,
these cannibal ways. While we remain on the island, no human life shall
be unjustly taken. Do you understand me?"

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back, and gazed around him suspiciously. In all his
experience no one had ever dared to address him like that. Assuredly, the
stranger from the sun must be a very great god--how great, he hardly
dared to himself to realize. He shrugged his shoulders. "When we mighty
deities of the first order speak together, face to face," he said, with
an uneasy air, "it is not well that the mere common herd of men should
overhear our profound deliberations. Let us go inside your hut. Let us
confer in private."

They entered the hut alone, Muriel still clinging to Felix's arm, in
speechless terror. Then Felix at once began to explain the situation. As
he spoke, a baleful light gleamed in Tu-Kila-Kila's eye. The great god
removed his mulberry-paper mask. He was evidently delighted at the turn
things had taken. If only he dared--but there; he dared not. "Fire and
Water would never allow it," he murmured softly to himself. "They know
the taboos as well as I do." It was clear to Felix that the savage would
gladly have sacrificed him if he dared, and that he made no bones about
letting him know it; but the custom of the islanders bound him as tightly
as it bound themselves, and he was afraid to transgress it.

"Now listen," Felix said, at last, after a long palaver, looking in the
savage's face with a resolute air: "Tu-Kila-Kila, we are not afraid of
you. We are not afraid of all your people. I went out alone just now to
rescue that child, and, as you see, I succeeded in rescuing it. Your
people have wounded me--look at the blood on my arms and chest--but I
don't mind for wounds. I mean you to do as I say, and to make your people
do so, too. Understand, the nation to which I belong is very powerful.
You have heard of the sailing gods who go over the sea in canoes of fire,
as swift as the wind, and whose weapons are hollow tubes, that belch
forth great bolts of lightning