e flight
of the maddened red deer; and scarcely less swiftly, I began scrambling
down the face of the cliff. It was really a series of almost hopeless
leaps to which I was committed, and the axe, to which I clung, rather
impeded than aided me as I let myself drop from one rocky shelf to
another, catching at the boughs and roots of trees to break my fall. At
last I reached the last ledge before the sheer wall of rock, which hung
above the path. As I let myself down, feeling with my feet for any shelf
or crack in the wall, I heard the blare of the stags, and the rattle of
the wheels. Half intentionally, half against my will, I left my hold of
a tree-root, and slid, bumping and scratching myself terribly, down the
slippery and slatey face of the rocky wall, till I fell in a mass on the
narrow road. In a moment I was on my feet, the axe I had thrown in front
of me, and I grasped it instinctively as I rose. It was not too soon.
The deer were almost on me. Stepping to the side of the way, where a
rock gave some shelter, I dealt a blow at the nearest stag, under which
he reeled and fell to the ground, his companion stumbling over him. In
the mad group of rearing beasts I smote right and left at the harness,
which gave way beneath my strokes, and the unhurt stags sped down the
glen, and then rushed into separate corries of the hills. The car was
upset, and Doto lay pale and bleeding among the hoofs of the stricken
deer.

I dragged her out of the danger to the side of the path. I felt her
pulse, which still fluttered. I brought her, in my hat, water from the
stream; and, finally, had the pleasure of seeing her return to life
before the first of her friends came, wailing and lamenting, and tearing
their hair, down the path.

When they found the girl unwounded, though still weak and faint, their
joy knew no bounds, though I too plainly perceived that they were
returning thanks to the heathen goddess whose priestess Doto was. As for
me, they once more crowned me in the most elaborate, and, I think,
unbecoming manner, with purple pandanus flowers. Then, having laid Doto
on a litter, they returned in procession to the town, where the girl was
taken into the chiefs house. As we parted, she held out her hand to me,
but instantly withdrew it with a deep sigh. I closely watched her. She
was weeping. I had noticed before that all the natives, as much as
possible, avoided personal contact with me. This fact, coupled with