Whinney was not alone in his scientific discoveries for on the return
trip Babai suddenly gave a cry of delight and the next instant had
climbed with amazing agility to the top of a towering palm whence she
returned bearing a semi-spheric bowl of closely woven grass in which
lay four snow-white, polka-dotted cubes, the marvelous square eggs of
the _fatu-liva_!

"Kopaa kopitaa aue!" she cried. "Hide them. Quickly, away!"

I knew the danger, of which my temple still bore the scar. Concealing
our find under our _taa-taa_ we scraped and slid over the faulted
and tilted strata to which Whinney had referred until we reached the
beach. High above us I could hear the anguished cry of the mother
_fatu-liva_ vainly seeking her ravished home and potential family.

The marking of the eggs is most curious and Whinney took a photograph
of them (see [Illustration: THE NEST OF A FATU-LIVA]) when we reached
the yawl. It is an excellent picture though Whinney, with the
raptiousness of the scientist, claims that one of the eggs moved.

Just before we left the mountain beach my own radiant Daughter of Pearl
and Coral made a discovery which in the light of after events was
destined to play an important part in our adventures. Kippiputuona,
my own true mate, there is something ironically tragic in the thought
that the simple blue flower which you plucked so carelessly from the
cliff edge and thrust into your hair would some day--but again, I
anticipate.

We had reached the yawl, which we made a sort of half-way house and