"For the very love of _you_, I must play the man, and find out what these savages mean by their drumming." He crept to the door of the hut (for no man could walk upright before that awful storm), and peered out into the darkness once more, awaiting one of the frequent flashes of lightning.

He had not long to wait.

In a moment the sky was all ablaze again from end to end, and continued so for many seconds consecutively.

By the light of the continuous zigzags of fire, Felix could see for himself that hundreds and hundreds of natives--men, women, and children, naked, or nearly so, with their hair loose and wet about their cheeks--lay flat on their faces, many courses deep, just outside the taboo line.

The wind swept over them with extraordinary force, and the tropical rain descended in great floods upon their bare backs and shoulders.