And sure enough, scarcely half a minute later, a British flag ran gayly up the mainmast, and a boat seemed to drop down over the side of the vessel.

As for the natives, they watched these proceedings with considerable surprise and no little discomfiture—­Fire and Water, in particular, whispering together, much alarmed, with many superstitious nods and taboos, in the corner of the enclosure.

Gradually, as the boat drew nearer and nearer, divided counsels prevailed among the savages.  With no certainly recognized Tu-Kila-Kila to marshal their movements, each man stood in doubt from whom to take his orders.  At last, the King of Fire, in a hesitating voice, gave the word of command.  “Half the warriors to the shore to repel the enemy; half to watch round the taboo-line, lest the Korongs escape us!  Let Breathless Fear, our war-god, go before the face of our troops, invisible!”

And, quick as thought, at his word, the warriors had paired off, two and two, in long lines; some running hastily down to the beach, to man the war-canoes, while others remained, with shark’s tooth spears still set in a looser circle, round the great temple-enclosure of Tu-Kila-Kila.

For Muriel, this suspense was positively terrible.  To feel one was so close to the hope of rescue, and yet to know that before that help arrived, or even as it came up, those savages might any moment run their ghastly spears through them.

But Felix made the best of his position still.  “Remember,” he cried, at the top of his voice, as the warriors started at a run for the water’s edge, “your Tu-Kila-Kila tells you, these new-comers are his friends.  Whoever hurts them, does so at his peril.  This is a great Taboo.  I bid you receive them.  Beware for your lives.  I, Tu-Kila-Kila the Great, have said it.”

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE DOWNFALL OF A PANTHEON.

The Australasian’s gig entered the lagoon through the fringing reef by its narrow seaward mouth, and rowed steadily for the landing place on the main island.

A little way out from shore, amid loud screams and yells, the natives came up with it in their laden war-canoes.  Shouting and gesticulating and brandishing their spears with the shark’s tooth tips, they endeavored to stop its progress landward by pure noise and bravado.

“We must be careful what we do, boys,” the captain observed, in a quiet voice of seamanlike resolution to his armed companions.  “We mustn’t frighten the savages too much, or show too hostile a front, for fear they should retaliate on our friends on the island.”  He held up his hand, with the gold braid on the wrist, to command silence; and the natives, gazing open-mouthed, looked and wondered at the gesture.  These sailing gods were certainly arrayed in most gorgeous vestments, and their canoe, though devoid of a grinning figure-head, was provided with a most admirable and well-uniformed equipment.