Part 26 (2/2)
Some instinct made dick cover himself up on shore, and strip naked on the reef In a e of the surf, javelin in one hand, fish-spear in the other
Emmeline, by a little pool the botto down into its depths, lost in a reverie like that into which we fall when gazing at shapes in the fire She had sat some time like this when a shout froazed to where he was pointing An a the curve of the reef, and scarcely a quarter of atopsail schooner; a beautiful sight she was, heeling to the breeze with every sail drawing, and the white foam like a feather at her fore-foot
dick, with the javelin in his hand, was standing gazing at her; he had dropped his fishspear, and he stood as h he were carved out of stone Emmeline ran to him and stood beside him; neither of the was visible, so close was she now, froreatof a gull, to the rail of the bulwarks A crowd ofat the island and the figures on the reef Browned by the sun and sea-breeze, E on the wind, and the point of dick's javelin flashi+ng in the sun, they looked an ideal pair of savages, seen fro away,” said E-drawn breath of relief
dick er in silence, then, having an to run up and down, calling out wildly, and beckoning to the vessel as if to call her back
Awas run up to the peak and dipped as in derision, and the vessel continued on her course
As aabout Her captain had for a moment been undecided as to whether the fores But the javelin in dick's hand had turned the scale of his opinion in favour of the theory of savages
CHAPTER VIII
LOVE STEPS IN
Two birds were sitting in the branches of the artu tree: Koko had taken a mate They had built a nest out of fibres pulled fros of the cocoa-nut fronds, bits of stick and wire grass--anything, in fact; even fibres fros of birds, the building of nests, what char!
The hawthorn tree never bloomed here, the climate was that of eternal sulish countryside or the Gerreatly interested E were conducted quite in the usualto rules laid down by Nature and carried out bydown through the leaves from the branch where the sapphire-coloured lovers sat side by side, or the fork where the nest was beginning to for of a fan, the sounds of a squabble, followed by the sounds that told of the squabble made up Sometimes after one of these squabbles a pale blue downy feather or tould co earthwards, touch the pal there, or be blown on to the grass
It was some days after the appearance of the schooner, and dick was uavas He had all thea basket to carry the froineer, building bridges and shi+ps, instead of palmetto-leaf baskets and cane houses--who knows if he would have been happier?
The heat ofover his shoulder on a piece of cane, he started for the woods, E to always filled her with a vague dread; not for a great deal would she have gone there alone dick had discovered it in one of his rambles
They entered the wood and passed a little well, a ithout apparent source or outlet and a bottom of fine white sand How the sand had formed there, it would be irew ferns redoubling themselves on the surface of the crystal-clear water They left this to the right and struck into the heart of the wood The heat of midday still lurked here; the as clear, for there was a sort of path between the trees, as if, in very ancient days, there had been a road
Right across this path, half lost in shadow, half sunlit, the lianas hung their ropes The hotoo tree, with its powdering of delicate blosso its lost loveliness to the sun; in the shade the scarlet hibiscus burned like a flame Artu and breadfruit trees and cocoa-nut bordered the way
As they proceeded the trees grew denser and the patha sharp turn, the path ended in a valley carpeted with fern This was the place that always filled Emmeline with an undefined dread One side of it was all built up in terraces with huge blocks of stone--blocks of stone so enormous, that the wonder was how the ancient builders had put the the terraces, thrusting their roots between the interstices of the blocks At their base, slightly tilted forward as if with the sinkage of years, stood a great stone figure roughly carved, thirty feet high at least--ure and the terraces, the valley itself, and the very trees that grew there, inspired Eue fear
People had been here once; so ae seemed to her to hide voices at times, even as its shadow concealed forms It was indeed an uncanny place to be alone in even under the broad light of day All across the Pacific for thousands of h the islands
These tereat terraces of stone, e They hint at one religion, and a time when the sea space of the Pacific was a continent, which, sinking slowly through the ages, has left only its higher lands and hill-tops visible in the form of islands Round these places the woods are thicker than elsewhere, hinting at the presence there, once, of sacred groves The idols are iue; the stores have cast over them a veil The sphinx is understandable and a toy cos, some of which have a stature of fifty feet, whose creation is veiled in absolute mystery--the Gods of a people for ever and for ever lost
The ”stone iven the idol of the valley; and sohts would stray that way, she would picture hi straight before hi; unconsciously one fell to listening too, and then the valley seeood to be alone with
Emmeline sat down amidst the fears just at his base When one was close up to hireat stone which cast a shadow in the sun