Adventure stories; Islands -- Fiction; Love stories; Shipwrecks -- Fiction
The big room was devoid of furniture save for the rugs and several
blocks of stone grouped about the idol. Ridgeway was convinced that they
were in the sacred place of worship. Seating themselves rather
sacrilegiously upon the stone blocks, they looked about the place with
tired, hopeless eyes. The walls were hung with spears, war clubs and
other ferocious weapons, evidently the implements of defence to be used
by the stone deity in case of emergency.
"Well," quoth Hugh, after the gloomy inspection, "they must think that
gods don't sleep. I don't see anything that looks like a berth around
here. God or no god, I am going to turn in somewhere for the night. His
Reverence may be disturbed if I snore, but I dare say his kick won't
amount to much. I'll pile some of these skins over in that corner for
you and then I'll build a nest for myself near the door." Suiting the
action to the word, he proceeded to make a soft couch for her. She sat
by and watched him with troubled eyes.
"Do you think it safe to go to sleep when we don't know what they may do
during the night? They may pounce upon us and kill us." Hugh paused in
his work and walked to her side.
"Something tells me we are safe with these people. We may as well make
the best of it, anyhow. We are in for it, and I'll bet my soul we come
out all right. Go over there and sleep. I'll be the first one killed if
they attempt violence. Here's a club that will down a few of them before
they get the best of me." He took from the wall a great
murderous-looking club and swung it about his head.
"I want to be killed first, Hugh, if it comes to that. If you are
merciful, you will kill me yourself when you see that it is their
intention to do so," she said earnestly.
"Pooh, there's no danger," he said, and went back to his work, impressed
by her manner more than he cared to admit. With her chin in her hands
she resignedly watched him complete her bed of tiger skins.
"We have desecrated the temple by disturbing the rugs," she said at
length.
"I'll have 'em make some hammocks for us to-morrow and we'll hang 'em in
each end of the temple. And we'll also have this place divided into two
or three apartments, say two sleeping rooms and a parlor, perhaps a
kitchen. If necessary, an addition can be stuck on just back of where
the idol stands. There'll be great doings around here when Yankee
progress takes hold."
"You surely do not mean to ruin their temple! They will be up in arms,
Hugh."
"Well, they'll have to endure a great many things if they expect to
support such luxuries as we are. If those fellows don't quit falling
down and bumping their faces on the ground, I'm going to have a lot of
pads made for them to wear when they think there is danger of meeting
us. They'll wear their faces out." It did him good to hear her laugh.
"Well, your bed is ready, my Lady."
"I am dying for a drink of water. Do you know how long it has been since
we touched food and drink?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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