What The Cave Contained
They came back at around half-past three in the afternoon, in a small group, walking back along the coconut line from the north point. Manning was in the middle of the group. He was walking with the specific slow care of a man who had been given something and was trying not to drop it. His notebook was in his hand, unopened. Rahiti was carrying Manning's water bottle for him, which told me something about how he had come back from where they had been.
I had lit the fire in the *fare* pit and boiled water, because it is what one does, and I handed out tea. Manning sat down in the sand and drank his tea carefully and did not speak for perhaps twenty minutes. Maruia and Tepahi sat a little way off, talking quietly to each other in Paumotu, and Eloa sat beside Manning, not speaking but present.
Eventually Maruia came over and sat down near me, and said, in French, "Captain Solis. I think it is right that you be told. Monsieur Manning has agreed."
"Yes," Manning said.
"The inner lagoon of this motu is the site of a structure that is not an ordinary structure. It is a *marae* — a traditional ceremonial platform — of a form that predates the arrival of European ships in these waters. We do not use it for ceremony in the old way. We maintain it. The *marae* on this motu is unusual in two respects. First, it is built not of the local coral but of basalt that does not come from any