f submission with knee and arm, endeavored, by pantomime,
to express the idea of their willingness to guide the strangers to their
friends' quarters.

The captain waved them on with his hand. The natives, reassured, led the
way, at some distance ahead, along the paths through the jungle. The
captain had his finger on his six-shooter the while; every sailor grasped
his cutlass and kept his revolver ready for action. "I don't half like
the look of it," the captain observed, partly to himself. "They seem to
be leading us into an ambuscade or something. Keep a sharp lookout
against surprise from the jungle, boys; and if any native shows fight
shoot him down instantly."

At last they emerged upon a clear space in the front, where a great group
of savages stood in a circle, with serried spears, round a large wattled
hut that occupied the elevated centre of the clearing.

For a minute or two the action of the savages was uncertain. Half of the
defenders turned round to face the invaders angrily; the other half stood
irresolute, with their spears still held inward, guarding a white line of
sand with inflexible devotion.

The warriors who had preceded them from the shore called aloud to their
friends by the temple in startled tones. The captain and sailors had no
idea what their words meant. But just then, from the midst of the circle,
an English voice cried out in haste, "Don't fire! Do nothing rash! We're
safe. Don't be frightened. The natives are disposed to parley and
palaver. Take care how you act. They're terribly afraid of you."

Just outside the taboo-line the captain halted. The gray-headed old
chief, who had accompanied his fellows to the shore, spoke out in
Polynesian. "Do not resist them," he said, "my people. If you do, you
will be blasted by their lightning like a bare bamboo in a mighty
cyclone. They carry thunder in their hands. They are mighty, mighty gods.
The white-faced Korong spoke no more than the truth. Let them do as they
will with us. We are but their meat. We are as dust beneath their sole,
and as driven mulberry-leaves before the breath of the tempest."

The defenders hesitated still a little. Then, suddenly losing heart, they
broke rank at last at a point close by where the captain of the
Australasian stood, one man after another falling aside slowly and
shamefacedly a pace or two. The captain, unhesitatingly, overstepped the
white taboo-line. Next instant, Felix and Muriel were grasping his hand