language. Bickley had the best of it, since already patients
began to arrive which occupied him. One of the first was that man
whom Tommy had bitten. He was carried to us in an almost comatose
state, suffering apparently from the symptoms of snake poisoning.

Afterward it turned out that he conceived Tommy to be a divine
but most venomous lizard that could make a very horrible noise,
and began to suffer as one might do from the bite of such a
creature. Nothing that Bickley could do was enough to save him
and ultimately he died in convulsions, a circumstance that
enormously enhanced Tommy's reputation. To tell the truth, we
took advantage of it to explain that Tommy was in fact a
supernatural animal, a sort of tame demon which only harmed
people who had malevolent intentions towards those he served or
who tried to steal any of their possessions or to intrude upon
them at inconvenient hours, especially in the dark. So terrible
was he, indeed, that even the skill of the Great Priest, i.e.,
Bickley, could not avail to save any whom once he had bitten in
his rage. Even to be barked at by him was dangerous and conveyed
a curse that might last for generations.

All this we set out when Bastin was not there. He had wandered
off, as he said, to look for shells, but as we knew, to practise
religious orations in the Polynesian tongue with the waves for
audience, as Demosthenes is said to have done to perfect himself
as a political orator. Personally I admit that I relied more on
the terrors of Tommy to safeguard us from theft and other
troubles than I did upon those of the native taboo and the
priestly oaths.