around their fire.

"It might be one of the niggers," whispered Holman. "Let us see."

We stole silently across the intervening space, and, crouching in the
shadows, counted the sleepers. There were seven. The prowler that Holman
had seen upon the top of the stone structure was evidently an outsider,
and the knowledge brought no pleasant feelings. Leith had assured the
Professor on several occasions that the island was uninhabited, yet it
was quite possible that natives from the adjoining groups had visited it
during the period that elapsed since his last visit. Yet we felt that it
was no stray visitor from another island that had peeped over the top of
the massive table, and it was with a suspicious eye upon the sleeping
Leith that we crept quietly over the coral rocks toward the tremendous
stone piers of the structure that rose like a monster gateway against
the gray sky. The atmosphere of that place was indescribable. We seemed
to be in the midst of relics that were older than the pyramids. The
temple of Luxor may seem impressive by moonlight, but the knowledge we
possess of Thebes in its glory somewhat modifies the awe which we would
feel if we knew nothing of the people who had raised the great monuments
in the city of Amen-Ra. And Holman and I knew nothing of the dead race
that erected the mighty stone table on the cleared slope, which by its
construction gave evidence of a knowledge of mechanics of which the
present-day Polynesian is entirely ignorant. I recalled the Nan-Tauch
ruins and the tombs of the mysterious Chan-te-leur kings Ola-Sipa and
Ola-Sopa in the Carolines, the _tolmas_ and the _langis_ of the
Marshall and Gilbert groups, and I wished the Professor anything but
pleasant dreams. The place seemed waiting for the return of its dead. The
scenery possessed that singular expectancy that compels one to turn around
every few moments to convince one's self that an unfriendly watcher is not