saw a swarm of
black, excited savages, led by two or three "devil-doctors" or priests,
advance towards the house. At the same moment Banderah, looking seaward,
saw that the boat had left the schooner and was pulling ashore. He was
just about to point her out to the trader when, for some reason, he
changed his mind, turned away, and joined his white friends at the other
end of the room.

Following the lead of the "devil-doctors," who, stripped to the waist,
and with their heads covered with the hideous masks used in their
incantations, looked like demons newly arisen from the pit, the yelling
swarm of natives at last reached the fence outside Blount's house;
and Mr. Deighton, with an inward groan, saw among them some of his pet
converts, stark naked and armed with spears and clubs.

Leaping and dancing with mad gyrations, and uttering curious grunting
sounds as their feet struck the ground, the devil-doctors at last came
within a few feet of the gate in the trader's fence. Then, suddenly, as
they caught sight of a branch of cocoanut leaf twisted in and around the
woodwork of the gate, they stopped their maddened whirl as if by magic;
and upon those behind them fell the silence of fear.

"Thank God!" muttered Blount, "we are safe. They will not break
Banderah's _tapu_."

Then, rifle in hand, and with quiet, unmoved face, Banderah opened the
trader's door and came out before them all.

"Who among ye desires the life of Banderah and those to whom he has
given his _tapu?_" he said.

The smaller of the two priests dashed aside his mask, and revealed the
face of the old man Toka, who had struck Baxter his death-blow.

"Who indeed, O chief? If it be to thy mind to make _tapu_ this house and
all in it, who is there dare break it? To the white man Challi and his
sons and daughters we meant no harm, though sweet to our bellies will be
the flesh of those whom we have slain and who now roast for the feast.
But more are yet to come; for I, Toka, lost my son, when thou, Banderah,
lost thy brother; and the gods have told me that I shall eat my fill of
those who stole him."

The savage, bitter hatred that rang through the old man's voice, and
the deep, approving murmur of those who stood about him, warned both
Banderah and Blount that the lust for slaughter was not yet appeased;
so it was with a feeling of intense surprise and relief that he and the
missionary saw them suddenly withdraw, and move rapidly away to the rear
of t