against so great
a Taboo; for Tu-Kila-Kila is evidently some very important king or chief.
You must step into the boat. It can't be avoided. If any harm is
threatened, be sure I won't forget my promise."

Muriel shrank back in alarm, and clung still to his arm now as
naturally as she would have clung to a brother's. "Oh, Mr. Thurstan,"
she cried--"Felix, I don't know what to say; I _can't_ go with them."

Felix put his arm gently round her girlish waist, and half lifted her
into the boat in spite of her reluctance. "You must," he said, with great
firmness. "You must do as I say. I will watch over you, and take care of
you. If the worst comes, I have always my knife, and I won't forget. Now,
friend," he went on, in Fijian, turning round to the chief, as he took
his seat in the canoe fearlessly among all those dusky, half-clad
figures, "we are ready to start. We do not fear. We wish to go. Take
us to Tu-Kila-Kila."

And all the savages around, shouting in their surprise and awe, exclaimed
once more in concert, "Tu-Kila-Kila is great. We will take them, as he
bids us, forthwith to heaven."

"What do they say?" Muriel cried, clinging close to the white man's side
in her speechless terror. "Do you understand their language?"

"Well, I can't quite make it out," Felix answered, much puzzled; "that is
to say, not every word of it. They say they'll take us somewhere, I don't
quite know where; but in Fijian, the word would certainly mean to
heaven."

Muriel shuddered visibly. "You don't think," she said, with a tremulous
tongue, "they mean to kill us?"

"No, I don't _think_ so," Felix replied, not over-confidently. "They said
we were Taboo. But with savages like these, of course, one can never in
any case be quite certain."

CHAPTER V.

ENROLLED IN OLYMPUS.

They rowed across the lagoon, a mysterious procession, almost in
silence--the canoe with the two Europeans going first, the others
following at a slight distance--and landed at last on the brink of the
central island.

Several of the Boupari people leaped ashore at once; then they helped
Felix and Muriel from the frail bark with almost deferential care, and
led the way before them up a steep white path, that zigzagged through the
forest toward the centre of the island. As they went, a band of natives
preceded them in regular line of march, shouting "Taboo, taboo!" at short
intervals, especially as they neared any group of fan-palm cottages. The
women wh