cliffs behind
that hid the sunrise. To the west, a swift cold river ran down, and
beyond was the green of the village, dotted with cocoa-palms and
breadfruits and houses. The shutters were some of them down and some
open; I saw the mosquito bars still stretched, with shadows of people
new-awakened sitting up inside; and all over the green others were
stalking silent, wrapped in their many-coloured sleeping clothes like
Bedouins in Bible pictures. It was mortal still and solemn and chilly,
and the light of the dawn on the lagoon was like the shining of a fire.

But the thing that troubled me was nearer hand. Some dozen young men and
children made a piece of a half-circle, flanking my house: the river
divided them, some were on the near side, some on the far, and one on a
boulder in the midst; and they all sat silent, wrapped in their sheets,
and stared at me and my house as straight as pointer dogs. I thought it
strange as I went out. When I had bathed and come back again, and found
them all there, and two or three more along with them, I thought it
stranger still. What could they see to gaze at in my house, I wondered,
and went in.

But the thought of these starers stuck in my mind, and presently I came
out again. The sun was now up, but it was still behind the cape of
woods. Say a quarter of an hour had come and gone. The crowd was
greatly increased, the far bank of the river was lined for quite a
way--perhaps thirty grown folk, and of children twice as many, some
standing, some squatted on the ground, and all staring at my house. I
have seen a house in the South Sea village thus surrounded, but then a
trader was thrashing his wife inside, and she singing out. Here was
nothing: the stove was alight, the smoke going up in a Christian manner;
all was shipshape and Bristol fashion. To be sure, there was a stranger
come, but they had a chance to see that stranger yesterday, and took it
quiet enough. What ailed them now? I leaned my arms on the rail and
stared back. Devil a wink they had in them! Now and then I could see the
children chatter, but they spoke so low not even the hum of their
speaking came my length. The rest were like graven images: they stared
at me, dumb and sorrowful, with their bright eyes; and it came upon me
things would look not much different if I were on the platform of the
gallows, and these good folk had come to see me hanged.

I felt I was getting daunted, and began to be afraid I looked it, whi