472 MYSTIC ISLES 



was enough at home to dismiss the coachman and his 

 equipage, and to he down, as was my wont during the 

 heat of the day. I put my bed in the doorway, and be- 

 fore I fell into my first sleep at Tautira, filled my eyes 

 with the blue of the shimmering lagoon and the hoary 

 line of the reef. I sank into dreams, with the slumbrous 

 roar upon the coral barrier like the thunder of a sea 

 god's rolling drum. 



