will wait by the tree. This is a trap you have set,
but I do not fall into it. If the King of the Rain comes, I shall be
there to meet him."

He seized his spear and hatchet and walked forth, erect, without one sign
of drunkenness. Ula trembled to herself as she saw him go. She was
playing a deep game. Had she given him only just enough kava to
strengthen and inspire him?

CHAPTER XXVIII.

WAGER OF BATTLE.

Felix wound his way painfully through the deep fern-brake of the jungle,
by no regular path, so as to avoid exciting the alarm of the natives, and
to take Tu-Kila-Kila's palace-temple from the rear, where the big tree,
which overshadowed it with its drooping branches, was most easily
approachable. As he and Toko crept on, bending low, through that dense
tropical scrub, in deathly silence, they were aware all the time of a
low, crackling sound that rang ever some paces in the rear on their trail
through the forest. It was Tu-Kila-Kila's Eyes, following them stealthily
from afar, footstep for footstep, through the dense undergrowth of bush,
and the crisp fallen leaves and twigs that snapped light beneath their
footfall. What hope of success with those watchful spies, keen as beagles
and cruel as bloodhounds, following ever on their track? What chance of
escape for Felix and Muriel, with the cannibal man-gods toils laid round
on every side to insure their destruction?

Silently and cautiously the two men groped their way on through the dark
gloom of the woods, in spite of their mute pursuers. The moonlight
flickered down athwart the trackless soil as they went; the hum of
insects innumerable droned deep along the underbrush. Now and then the
startled scream of a night jar broke the monotony of the buzz that was
worse than silence; owls boomed from the hollow trees, and fireflies
darted dim through the open spaces. At last they emerged upon the cleared
area of the temple. There Felix, without one moment's hesitation, with a
firm and resolute tread, stepped over the white coral line that marked
the taboo of the great god's precincts. That was a declaration of open
war; he had crossed the Rubicon of Tu-Kila-Kila's empire. Toko stood
trembling on the far side; none might pass that mystic line unbidden and
live, save the Korong alone who could succeed in breaking off the bough
"with yellow leaves, resembling a mistletoe," of which Methuselah, the
parrot, had told Felix and Muriel, and so earn the right to fight