sent me an acceptable present."

"What is your will that we should do with them?" the chief asked in a
deeply deferential tone.

Tu-Kila-Kila looked hard at Muriel--such a hateful look that the knife
trembled irresolute for a second in Felix's hand. "Give them two fresh
huts," he said, in a lordly way. "Give them divine platters. Give them
all that they need. Make everything right for them."

The chief bowed, and retired with an awed air from the presence. Exactly
as he passed a certain line on the ground, marked white with a row of
coral-sand, Tu-Kila-Kila seized his spear and his tomahawk once more, and
mounted guard, as before, at the foot of the great tree where they had
seen him pacing. An instantaneous change seemed to Muriel to come over
his demeanor at that moment. While he spoke with the chief she noticed
he looked all cruelty, lust, and hateful self-indulgence. Now that he
paced up and down warily in front of that sacred floor, peering around
him with keen suspicion, he seemed rather the personification of
watchfulness, fear, and a certain slavish bodily terror. Especially, she
observed, he cast upon Felix, as he went, a glance of angry hate; and yet
he did not attempt to hurt or molest him in any way, defenceless as they
both were before those numerous savages.

As they emerged from the enclosure, the girl with the fruit basket stood
near the gate, looking outward from the wall, her face turned away from
the awful home of Tu-Kila-Kila. At the moment when Muriel passed, to her
immense astonishment the girl spoke to her. "Don't be afraid, missy," she
said in English, in a rather low voice, without obtrusively approaching
them. "Boupari man not going to hurt you. Me going to be your servant. Me
name Mali. Me very good girl. Me take plenty care of you."

The unexpected sound of her own language, in the midst of so much
unmitigated savagery, took Muriel fairly by surprise. She looked hard at
the girl, but thought it wisest to answer nothing. This particular young
woman, indeed, was just as dark, and to all appearance just as much of a
savage, as any of the rest of them. But she could speak English, at any
rate! And she said she was to be Muriel's servant!

The chief led them back to the shore, talking volubly all the way in
Polynesia to Felix. His dialect differed so much from the Fijian that
when he spoke first Felix could hardly follow him. But he gathered
vaguely, nevertheless, that they were to be well ho