notice of Bastin, "I really don't know. My expectation is,
however, that when we go to look tomorrow morning--and I suggest

that we should not do so before then in order that we may give
our minds time to clear--we shall find that sepulchre place quite

empty, even perhaps without the crystal coffins we have imagined
to stand there."

"Perhaps we shall find that there isn't a cave at all and that
we are not sitting on a flat rock outside of it," suggested

Bastin with heavy sarcasm, adding, "You are clever in your way,
Bickley, but you can talk more rubbish than any man I ever knew."

"They told us they would come back tonight or tomorrow," I
said. "If they do, what will you say then, Bickley?"

"I will wait till they come to answer that question. Now let us
go for a walk and try to change our thoughts. We are all

over-strained and scarcely know what we are saying."
"One more question," I said as we rose to start. "Did Tommy

suffer from hallucinations as well as ourselves?"
"Why not?" answered Bickley. "He is an animal just as we are,

or perhaps we thought we saw Tommy do the things he did."
"When you found that basket of fruit, Bastin, which the natives

brought over in the canoe, was there a bough covered with red
flowers lying on the top of it?"

"Yes, Arbuthnot, one bough only; I threw it down on the rock as
it got in the way when I was carrying the basket."

"Which flowering bough we all thought we saw the Sleeper Oro
carry away after Tommy had brought it to him."

"Yes; he made me pick it up and give it to him," said Bastin.
"Well, if we did not see this it should still be lying on the

rock, as there has been no wind and there are no animals here to
carry it away. You will admit that, Bickley?"

He nodded.
"Then if it has gone you will admit also that the presumption

is that we saw what we thought we did see?"
"I do not know how that conclusion can be avoided, at any rate

so far as the incident of the bough is concerned," replied
Bickley with caution.

Then, without more words, we started to look. At the spot where
the bough should have been, there was no bough, but on the rock

lay several of the red flowers, bitten off, I suppose, by Tommy
while he was carrying it. Nor was this all. I think I have

mentioned that the Glittering Lady wore sandals which were
fastened with red studs that looked like rubies or carbuncles. On

the rock lay one of these studs. I picked it up and we examined
it. It had been sewn to the sandal-strap with golden thread or

silk. Some of this substance hung from the hole drilled in the
stone which served for an eye. It was as rotten as tinder,

apparently with extreme age. Moreover, the hard gem itself was
pitted as though the passage of time had taken effect upon it,

though this may have been caused by other agencies, such as the
action of the radium rays. I smiled at Bickley who looked

disconcerted and even sad. In a way it is painful to see the
effect upon an able and earnest man of the upsetting of his

lifelong theories.
We went for our walk, keeping to the flat lands at the foot of

the volcano cone, for we seemed to have had enough of wonders and
to desire to reassure ourselves, as it were, by the study of

natural and familiar things. As it chanced, too, we were rewarded
by sundry useful discoveries. Thus we found a place where the

bread-tree and other fruits, most of them now ripe, grew in
abundance, as did the yam. Also, we came to an inlet that we

noticed was crowded with large and beautiful fish from the lake,
which seemed to find it a favourite spot. Perhaps this was

because a little stream of excellent water ran in here,
overflowing from the great pool or mere which filled the crater

above.
At these finds we rejoiced greatly, for now we knew that we

need not fear starvation even should our supply of food from the
main island be cut off. Indeed, by help of some palm-leaf stalks

which we wove together roughly, Bastin, who was rather clever at
this kind of thing, managed to trap four fish weighing two or

three pounds apiece, wading into the water to do so. It was
curious to observe with what ease he adapted himself to the

manners and customs of primeval man, so much so, indeed, that
Bickley remarked that if he could believe in re-incarnation, he

would be absolutely certain that Bastin was a troglodyte in his
last sojourn on the earth.

However this might be, Bastin's primeval instincts and
abilities were of the utmost service to us. Before we had been

many days on that island he had built us a kind of native hut or
house roofed with palm leaves in which, until provided with a

better, as happened afterwards, we ate and he and Bickley slept,
leaving the tent to me. Moreover, he wove a net of palm fibre

with which he caught abundance of fish, and made fishing-lines of
the same material (fortunately we had some hooks) which he baited

with freshwater mussels and the insides of fish. By means of
these he secured some veritable monsters of the carp species that

proved most excellent eating. His greatest triumph, however, was
a decoy which he constructed of boughs, wherein he trapped a

number of waterfowl. So that soon we kept a very good table of a
sort, especially after he had learned how to cook our food upon

the native plan by means of hot stones. This suited us admirably,
as it enabled Bickley and myself to devote all our time to

archaeological and other studies which did not greatly interest
Bastin.

By the time that we got back to camp it was drawing towards
evening, so we cooked our food and ate, and then, thoroughly

exhausted, made ourselves as comfortable as we could and went to
sleep. Even our marvelous experiences could not keep Bickley and

myself from sleeping, and on Bastin such things had no effect. He
accepted them and that was all, much more readily than we did,

indeed. Triple-armed as he was in the mail of a child-like faith,
he snapped his fingers at evil spirits which he supposed the

Sleepers to be, and at everything else that other men might
dread.

Now, as I have mentioned, after our talk with Marama, although
we did not think it wise to adventure ourselves among them again

at present, we had lost all fear of the Orofenans. In this
attitude, so far as Marama himself and the majority of his people

were concerned, we were quite justified, for they were our warm
friends. But in the case of the sorcerers, the priests and all

their rascally and superstitiousbrotherhood, we were by no means
justified. They had not forgiven Bastin his sacrilege or for his

undermining of their authority by the preaching of new doctrines
which, if adopted, would destroy them as a hierarchy. Nor had

they forgiven Bickley for shooting one of their number, or any of
us for our escape from the vengeance of their god.

So it came about that they made a plot to seize us all and hale
us off to be sacrificed to a substituted image of Oro, which by

now they had set up. They knew exactly where we slept upon the
rock; indeed, our fire showed it to them and so far they were not

afraid to venture, since here they had been accustomed for
generations to lay their offerings to the god of the Mountain.

Secretly on the previous night, without the knowledge of Marama,
they had carried two more canoes to the borders of the lake. Now

on this night, just as the moon was setting about three in the
morning, they made their attack, twenty-one men in all, for the

three canoes were large, relying on the following darkness to get
us away and convey us to the place of sacrifice to be offered up

at dawn and before Marama could interfere.
The first we knew of the matter, for most foolishly we had