The savage gulped down a few more mouthfuls of the intoxicating liquid.  Then he glanced up again suddenly with a quick, suspicious look.  The cunning of his race gave him wisdom in spite of the deadly strength of the kava Ula had brewed too deep for him.  With a sudden resolve, he rose and staggered out.  “You are a serpent, woman!” he cried angrily, seeing the smile that lurked upon Ula’s face.  “To-morrow I will kill you.  I will take the white woman for my bride, and she and I will feast off your carrion body.  You have tried to betray me, but you are not cunning enough, not strong enough.  No woman shall kill me.  I am a very great god.  I will not yield.  I will wait by the tree.  This is a trap you have set, but I do not fall into it.  If the King of the Rain comes, I shall be there to meet him.”

He seized his spear and hatchet and walked forth, erect, without one sign of drunkenness.  Ula trembled to herself as she saw him go.  She was playing a deep game.  Had she given him only just enough kava to strengthen and inspire him?

CHAPTER XXVIII.

WAGER OF BATTLE.

Felix wound his way painfully through the deep fern-brake of the jungle, by no regular path, so as to avoid exciting the alarm of the natives, and to take Tu-Kila-Kila’s palace-temple from the rear, where the big tree, which overshadowed it with its drooping branches, was most easily approachable.  As he and Toko crept on, bending low, through that dense tropical scrub, in deathly silence, they were aware all the time of a low, crackling sound that rang ever some paces in the rear on their trail through the forest.  It was Tu-Kila-Kila’s Eyes, following them stealthily from afar, footstep for footstep, through the dense undergrowth of bush, and the crisp fallen leaves and twigs that snapped light beneath their footfall.  What hope of success with those watchful spies, keen as beagles and cruel as bloodhounds, following ever on their track?  What chance of escape for Felix and Muriel, with the cannibal man-gods toils laid round on every side to insure their destruction?

Silently and cautiously the two men groped their way on through the dark gloom of the woods, in spite of their mute pursuers.  The moonlight flickered down athwart the trackless soil as they went; the hum of insects innumerable droned deep along the underbrush.  Now and then the startled scream of a night jar broke the monotony of the buzz that was worse than silence; owls boomed from the hollow trees, and fireflies darted dim through the open spaces.  At last they emerged upon the cleared area of the temple.  There Felix, without one moment’s hesitation, with a firm and resolute tread, stepped over the white coral line that marked the taboo of the great god’s precincts.  That was a declaration of open war; he had crossed the Rubicon of Tu-Kila-Kila’s empire.  Toko stood trembling on the far side; none might pass that mystic line unbidden and live, save the Korong alone who could succeed in breaking off the bough “with yellow leaves, resembling a mistletoe,” of which Methuselah, the parrot, had told Felix and Muriel, and so earn the right to fight for his life with the redoubted and redoubtable Tu-Kila-Kila.