Presently he began to shout to us from the end of the table-rock and we went to see the reason of his noise.It proved to be very satisfactory, for while we were in the cave the Orofenans had brought absolutely everything belonging to us, together with a large supply of food from the main island.Not a single article was missing; even our books, a can with the bottom out, and the broken pieces of a little pocket mirror had been religiously transported, and with these a few articles that had been stolen from us, notably my pocket-knife.Evidently a great taboo had been laid upon all our possessions.They were now carefully arranged in one of the grooves of the rock that Bickley supposed had been made by the wheels of aeroplanes, which was why we had not seen them at once.
Each of us rushed for what we desired most--Bastin for one of the canisters of tea, I for my diaries, and Bickley for his chest of instruments and medicines.These were removed to the mouth of the cave, and after them the other things and the food; also a bell tent and some camp furniture that we had brought from the ship.Then Bastin made some tea of which he drank four large pannikins, having first said grace over it with unwonted fervour.
Nor did we disdain our share of the beverage, although Bickley preferred cocoa and I coffee.Cocoa and coffee we had no time to make then, and in view of that sepulchre in the cave, what had we to do with cocoa and coffee?
So Bickley and I said to each other, and yet presently he changed his mind and in a special metal machine carefully made some extremely strong black coffee which he poured into a thermos flask, previously warmed with hot water, adding thereto about a claret glass of brandy.Also he extracted certain drugs from his medicine-chest, and with them, as I noted, a hypodermic syringe, which he first boiled in a kettle and then shut up in a little tube with a glass stopper.
These preparations finished, he called to Tommy to give him the scraps of our meal.But there was no Tommy.The dog was missing, and though we hunted everywhere we could not find him.Finally we concluded that he had wandered off down the beach on business of his own and would return in due course.We could not bother about Tommy just then.
After making some further preparations and fidgeting about a little, Bickley announced that as we had now some proper paraffin lamps of the powerful sort which are known as "hurricane," he proposed by their aid to carry out further examinations in the cave.
"I think I shall stop where I am," said Bastin, helping himself from the kettle to a fifth pannikin of tea."Those corpses are very interesting, but I don't see any use in staring at them again at present.One can always do that at any time.I have missed Marama once already by being away in that cave, and I have a lot to say to him about my people; I don't want to be absent in case he should return.""To wash up the things, I suppose," said Bickley with a sniff;"or perhaps to eat the tea-leaves."
"Well, as a matter of fact, I have noticed that these natives have a peculiar taste for tea-leaves.I think they believe them to be a medicine, but I don't suppose they would come so far for them, though perhaps they might in the hope of getting the head of Oro.Anyhow, I am going to stop here.""Pray do," said Bickley."Are you ready, Humphrey?"I nodded, and he handed to me a felt-covered flask of the non-conducting kind, filled with boiling water, a tin of preserved milk, and a little bottle of meat extract of a most concentrated sort.Then, having lit two of the hurricane lamps and seen that they were full of oil, we started back up the cave.
