ne of heat which was not
bearable.

We were right, for when we had staggered forward a little further,
suddenly Tommy ran ahead of us and vanished. Then we heard him barking
but where we could not see, since the tunnel appeared to take a turn
and continue, but this time on a downward course, while the sound of the
barks came from our right. We searched with the lanterns which were
now beginning to die and found a little hole almost filled with fallen
pieces of rock. We scooped these away with our hands, making an aperture
large enough to creep through. A few more yards and we saw light, the
blessed light of the moon, and in it stood Tommy barking hoarsely. Next
we heard the sound of the sea. We struggled on desperately and presently
pushed our way through bushes and vegetation on to a steep declivity.
Down this we rolled and scrambled, to find ourselves at last lying upon
a sandy beach, whilst above us the full moon shone in the heavens.

Here, with a prayer of thankfulness, we flung ourselves down and slept.

If it had not been for Tommy and we had gone further along the tunnel,
which I have little doubt stretched on beneath the sea, where, I wonder,
should we have slept that night?

When we woke the sun was shining high in the heavens. Evidently there
had been rain towards the dawn, though as we were lying beneath the
shelter of some broad-leaved tree, from it we had suffered little
inconvenience. Oh! how beautiful, after our sojourn in those unholy
caves, were the sun and the sea and the sweet air and the raindrops
hanging on the leaves.

We did not wake of ourselves; indeed if we had been left alone I am
sure that we should have slept the clock round, for we were terribly
exhausted. What woke us was the chatter of a crowd of Orofenans who were
gathered at a distance from the tree and engaged in staring at us in a
frightened way, also the barks of Tommy who objected to their intrusion.
Among the people I recognised our old friend the chief Marama by his
feather cloak, and sitting up, beckoned to him to approach. After a good
deal of hesitation he came, walking delicately like Agag, and stopping
from time to time to study us, as though he were not sure that we were
real.

"What frightens you, Marama?" I asked him.

"You frighten us, O Friend-from-the-Sea. Whence did you and the Healer
and the Bellower come and why do your faces look like those of ghosts
and why is the little black beast so large-eyed and so th