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 superstitious brotherhood, 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 neglected to keep a watch, was the unpleasant sensation of brawny savages kneeling on us and trussing us up with palm-fibre ropes.
