Chapter 30

The natives did no more diving that day. Anchors came up, gear was stowed away, and one after another the canoes fell in behind old Maruia, while the wailing of the _tangi_, the native mourning for the dead, floated across the lagoon. I reached for our own anchor-line, but Marama stopped me with a gesture. "Wait," he said seriously, "we will go back soon, but first there is something I must tell you." "Let us go to the Tara," I answered, "and tell Seroni what has happened. This place makes me shudder. I have no mor…