"Kill him! Tear him to pieces!" they cried in their rage.

"He has a bad heart! He destroyed our huts! He broke down our plantations! Kill him, kill him, kill him!" As they closed in upon him, with spears and tomahawks and clubs, Felix saw he had nothing left for it now but a hard fight for life to return to the taboo-line.

Holding the child in one arm, and striking wildly out with his knife with the other, he tried to hack his way back by main force to the shelter of the taboo-line in frantic lunges.

The distance was but a few feet, but the savages pressed round him, half frightened still, yet gnashing their teeth and distorting their faces with anger.
"He has broken the Taboo," they cried in vehement tones.

"He has crossed the line willingly.