As the tropical twilight fell upon the valley we came to one of the strange stone structures that are to be found in the Tongan and Cook groups, and which have puzzled explorers who have sought in vain to find a reason for their construction or an explanation of the methods by which a savage people lifted the huge blocks of rock into position.

The one that suddenly appeared before us was situated on a small slope that was free from trees and creepers, and as it stood there, black and massive, one could fancy it part of the ruins of Karnak instead of a relic left by a people that were much below the intelligence of those who raised the wonders in the land of the Nile.  The four supporting piers of stone were about four feet square and fully fifteen feet in height, while the immense flat rock that was laid upon them was more than twelve feet in length and breadth, with a six-foot thickness.  It was moss-grown and gray, but the supporting pillars had not deviated one inch from the perpendicular, although the weight upon them was tremendous.  The bed of coral rock on which they rested had proved a reliable foundation, and the singular structure had scoffed at time.

The Professor started a lengthy discourse on sacrificial altars the moment we halted, ranging from Stonehenge to Toluca in search of comparisons, but we were too tired to give it much attention.  Holman remarked in a whisper that Soma could probably outpoint the Professor if it came to an array of facts concerning the probable uses of the gigantic table, and when I glanced at the Kanaka, as he stopped to listen to the scientist’s discourse, I felt inclined to agree with the scoffer.  Soma had an intelligence that lifted him above his class, and I was convinced that many of the Professor’s surmises caused him secret merriment.

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CHAPTER X

A MIDNIGHT ALARM

I think that Professor Herndon was the only person in the company who was quite contented with the day’s doings on that evening when we camped near the table of stone.  The polished slide and the ledge along which we had passed to the cavern stirred his imagination concerning the wonders that were before him, and he convinced himself that he had the god of his ambition by the heel.  The fat notebook was made the repository of countless surmises regarding the period at which the ledge was in active use as a test for courage, and the stone structure that loomed up immediately beside the camp was tagged with countless suppositions regarding its uses and its probable date of construction.  Soma gathered in some easily earned shillings by raking his mind in search of traditions and retailing them to the scientist by the light of the fire.  He made magazine prices for tales that he spun from his fertile brain, and the Professor could hardly write fast enough in the excitement brought about by the discovery of so much historical knowledge.