eant to hurt her, and that,
if only she would venture without the line, as of old, all should be
well, and they would love and adore her. Mali translated to her mistress
these speeches and prayers. "Them say, 'You come back, Queenie,'" she
explained in her broken Queensland English. "'Boupari women love you very
much. Boupari women glad you come. You kind; you beautiful! All Boupari
men and women very much pleased with you and the gentleman, because you
give back him cocoanut and fruit that you pick in the storm, and because
you bring down fresh fire from heaven.'"

Gradually, after several days, Felix's confidence was so far restored
that he ventured to stroll beyond the line again; and he found himself,
indeed, most popular among the people. In various ways he picked up
gradually the idea that the islanders generally disliked Tu-Kila-Kila,
and liked himself; and that they somehow regarded him as Tu-Kila-Kila's
natural enemy. What it could all mean he did not yet understand, though
some inklings of an explanation occasionally occurred to him. Oh, how he
longed now for the Month of Birds to end, in order that he might pay his
long-deferred visit to the mysterious Frenchman, from whose voice his
Shadow had fled on that fateful evening with such sudden precipitancy.
The Frenchman, he judged, must have been long on the island, and could
probably give him some satisfactory solution of this abstruse problem.

So he was glad, indeed, when one evening, some weeks later, his Shadow,
observing the sky narrowly, remarked to him in a low voice, "New moon
to-morrow! The Month of Birds will then be up. In the morning you can go
and see your brother god at the Abode of Birds without breaking taboo.
The Month of Turtles begins at sunrise. My family god is a turtle, so I
know the day for it."

So great was Felix's impatience to settle this question, that almost
before the sun was up next day he had set forth from his hut, accompanied
as usual by his faithful Shadow. Their way lay past Tu-Kila-Kila's
temple. As they went by the entrance with the bamboo posts, Felix
happened to glance aside through the gate to the sacred enclosure. Early
as it was, Tu-Kila-Kila was afoot already; and, to Felix's great
surprise, was pacing up and down, with that stealthy, wary look upon his
cunning face that Muriel had so particularly noted on the day of their
first arrival. His spear stood in his hand, and his tomahawk hung by his
left side; he peered