a,
and blocking the way to the door of that sacred English girl's hut--oh,
how horrible it was to him even to think of her purity being contaminated
by the vile neighborhood, for one minute, of that loathsome monster! He
looked full into the wretch's face, and answered very distinctly, in low,
slow tones, "If you dare to take one step toward the place where that
lady now rests, if you dare to move your foot one inch nearer, if you
dare to ask to see her face again, I will plunge the knife hilt-deep into
your vile heart, and kill you where you stand without one second's
deliberation. Now you hear my words and you know what I mean. My weapon
is keener and fiercer than any you Polynesians ever saw. Repeat those
words once more, and by all that's true and holy, before they're out of
your mouth I leap upon you and stab you."

Tu-Kila-Kila drew back in sudden surprise. He was unaccustomed to be so
bearded in his own sacred island. "Well, I shall claim her to-morrow," he
faltered out, taken aback by Felix's unexpected energy. He paused for a
second, then he went on more slowly: "To-morrow I will come with all my
people to claim my bride. This afternoon they will bring her mats of
grass and necklets of nautilus shell to deck her for her wedding, as
becomes Tu-Kila-Kila's chosen one. The young maids of Boupari will adorn
her for her lord, in the accustomed dress of Tu-Kila-Kila's wives. They
will clap their hands; they will sing the marriage song. Then early in
the morning I will come to fetch her--and woe to him who strives to
prevent me!"

Felix looked at him long, with a fixed and dogged look.

"What has made you think of this devilry?" he asked at last, still
grasping his knife hard, and half undecided whether or not to use it.
"You have invented all these ideas. You have no claim, even in the horrid
customs of your savage country, to demand such a sacrifice."

Tu-Kila-Kila laughed loud, a laugh of triumphant and discordant
merriment. "Ha, ha!" he cried, "you do not understand our customs, and
will you teach _me_, the very high god, the guardian of the laws and
practices of Boupari? You know nothing; you are as a little child. I am
absolute wisdom. With every Korong, this is always our rule. Till the
moon is full, on the last month before we offer up the sacrifice, the
Queen of the Clouds dwells apart with her Shadow in her own new temple.
So our fathers decreed it. But at the full of the moon, when the day has
come, the