opaque green, the colour of vert-de-gris. The harsh
grey cliffs towered high above its edge, their sheer
sides wonderfully made a foothold by the sago palm,
and a few straggling shrubs. Skirting the curve, I
came upon a cave, black and yawning, with huge
bulbous stalactites depending from its roof. Some
thongs of a creeper, hanging downwards, showed that
the place was used by the Sal6n for tying up their
boats. In this dark and lonely place the swallows
were building those nests that furnish a soup for the
gourmets of China.
The air within was hot and closeI the stalaermites
and projecting bastions of the cave were covered with
a mosaic of shells and other marine life. The water
lapped the cave, with a hoarse, long-drawn sigh. It is
impossible to communicate the horror of the sound.'
For the cave seemed like some evil monster, on the
far outskirts of sentient life, dark, blind, and awfujl
swallowing up its tribute from the sea. Big jelly-fish
floated by into its recesses, and I discovered, with a
disagreeable sensation, that a strong current was making
for the low-hung lips of the cave, along which the
hapless fish were being borne. Looking back from the
tense gloom of the cave, my jsyes turned with relief
to the open landscape of the world o u t s id e t o the
beautiful reaches of luminous water, to a small island
framed in a sky of pink cloudlets, slowly drifting with
the wind ; and I emerged from the cave with a feeling
of sheer physical relief.
Outside, the strip of yellow shell-sand that had
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brought me so far, offered its smiling hospitality. I was
soon at ease in the buoyant water. At such a temperature,
rich, refreshing, and cool! I had come, it
seemed, upon a bathing-pool of the gods. On such
occasions the spirit reverts by subtle cadences to its
primitive youth ; the youth, not alone of the individual,
but of the race. So it came that I swam about, and
lay on the yellow sand, just covered by the lambent
TH E CAVE
fluid, wondering at the new view of the world that
comes to one who lies upon his back and looks out
across the level face of the sea. I shouted to the
world and laughed, and raced against my dog, who was
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