efficacious and magical
medicine. His one fear now was lest his followers should hear and
discover his discomfiture. He peered about him cautiously, with that
careful gleam shining bright in his eye; then he said with a leer, in a
very low voice, "We two need not quarrel. We are both of us gods. Neither
of us is the stronger. We are equal, that's all. Let us live like
brothers, not like enemies, on the island."

"I don't want to be your brother," Felix answered, unable to conceal his
loathing any more. "I hate and detest you."

"What does he say?" Muriel asked, in an agony of fear at the savage's
black looks. "Is he going to kill us?"

"No," Felix answered, boldly. "I think he's afraid of us. He's going to
do nothing. You needn't fear him."

"Can she not speak?" the savage asked, pointing with his finger somewhat
rudely toward Muriel. "Has she no voice but this, the chatter of birds?
Does she not know the human language?"

"She can speak," Felix replied, placing himself like a shield between
Muriel and the astonished savage. "She can speak the language of the
people of our distant country--a beautiful language which is as far
superior to the speech of the brown men of Polynesia as the sun in the
heavens is superior to the light of a candlenut. But she can't speak the
wretched tongue of you Boupari cannibals. I thank Heaven she can't, for
it saves her from understanding the hateful things your people would say
of her. Now go! I have seen already enough of you. I am not afraid.
Remember, I am as powerful a god as you. I need not fear. You cannot hurt
me."

A baleful light gleamed in the cannibal's eye. But he thought it best to
temporize. Powerful as he was on his island, there was one thing yet more
powerful by far than he; and that was Taboo--the custom and superstition
handed down from his ancestors, These strangers were Korong; he dare not
touch them, except in the way and manner and time appointed by custom. If
he did, god as he was, his people themselves would turn and rend him. He
was a god, but he was bound on every side by the strictest taboos. He
dare not himself offer violence to Felix.

So he turned with a smile and bided his time. He knew it would come. He
could afford to laugh. Then, going to the door, he said, with his grand
affable manner to his chiefs around, "I have spoken with the gods, my
ministers, within. They have kissed my hands. My rain has fallen. All is
well in the land. Arise, let us g