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THE FLOWER OF LANAI.

lover, at first with entreaties, and then with threats, endeavoured to induce the iron-hearted parent to disclose the whereabouts of the lost wife. So angry and vengeful did Kai at last become, that he threatened to take the life of him who had robbed him of his treasure; but the old man took sanctuary in one of the Temples of Refuge, and here, engirdled by all the terrible powers of the tapu, he was safe from harm. In despair Kai sought the services of a soothsayer, in the endeavour to trace the lost one, and the seer, after falling into the customary trance, answered that he could see the lost bride, who was not dead, but in some place of semi-darkness, amid the horrible creeping things of the ocean. “There, with her heart full of fear, she lies; but be speedy, or you will be too late.” Kai had heard of the Spouting Cave, and thither at once he set out. He leapt into the whirlpool, and was borne to the cave, on whose rocky shore he stood bewildered and unable to see in the gloomy atmosphere. He called aloud, and heard a feeble moan in reply. It was the voice of the Flower of Lanai, who, exhausted with hunger, and mutilated by the crabs and other loathsome creatures in that terrible place, was lying near him. He flung his arms around the form of her whom he