Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well;
then he stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen of
them coming up; but possibly they will pass this room."

"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--they
are on their way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able to
hide in the next room--there are skins there beneath which we
may crawl. They will not stop in that room; but they may stop in
this one for a short time--the other room is blue."

"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman.

"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder has
been done you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder.
When the room is all blue, they shun it. This room has much
blue; but evidently they kill mostly in the next room, which is
now all blue."

"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen,"
said Bradley.

"Yes, " assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each of
those houses--when all the rooms are blue then the whole outside
of the house will be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls.
There are many such here."

"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley.
"Did they belong to murderers?"

"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amount