initial commit of ebook 10862HEADmain

1 files changed, 7420 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/10862-8.txt b/10862-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71d2202
--- /dev/null
+++ b/10862-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7420 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Waterfall, by James Francis Dwyer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The White Waterfall
+
+Author: James Francis Dwyer
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10862]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE WATERFALL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Harold Lawson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+THE INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE LIBRARY
+
+THREE OWLS EDITION
+
+
+
+THE WHITE WATERFALL
+
+An Adventure Story
+
+BY JAMES FRANCIS DWYER
+
+
+TO L.G.D. and G.M.D.
+
+
+  "THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,
+   THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,
+   THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN OUT
+   OF BLACK FERNANDO'S HELL."
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+It is perhaps inadvisable to mix fact with fiction, but, it appears,
+some reference to certain portions of "The White Waterfall" that might
+strain the belief of the average reader will not be out of place. In the
+wonderful islands of the Pacific many things happen that seem improbable
+to the minds of those who dwell close to the heart of civilization. The
+mysterious Isle of Tears is not altogether a dream. There are several
+islands in Polynesia that have been looked upon from time immemorial as
+islands of the dead. These places are shunned by the islanders, and the
+centuries have invested them with the same atmosphere of brooding
+mystery that Professor Herndon and his party felt when they landed upon
+the silent isle where the Wizards of the Centipede performed their weird
+rites without interference from the outside world.
+
+Nor is the Vermilion Pit created out of thin air. The savage has used
+many startling methods to separate the born warrior from the coward, and
+the author has seen a place just as wonderful as the pit, where the
+young men of the tribe were tested in the same manner as that related
+in this story. The cunning savage has always thought it inadvisable to
+pick his fighting men till their courage had been thoroughly tested, and
+in dull days of peace the headmen of the tribes racked their brains to
+discover nerve-shaking ordeals to try the daring of the growing youth.
+The safety of the tribe depended upon the valour of the fighting line,
+and it would have been an inexcusable blunder to put the nervous ones in
+the front rank.
+
+The strange stone structures similar to the one upon which Holman and
+Verslun narrowly escaped being offered up as sacrifices to the Centipede
+are to be found in many islands of the Pacific at the present day. In
+the Tongan, Caroline, and Cook groups these peculiar stone ruins remain
+as evidence of the existence of an ancient people of superior
+intelligence to the islanders of to-day. As to the meaning or use of
+these structures we are entirely in the dark. The natives of these
+groups know nothing concerning them, and the Polynesian builder in that
+dark past was too busy clubbing and eating his neighbour to write
+histories. Scientists are in doubt, as in the case of the great ruins at
+Metalanim, whether they were built as sacrificial altars or as monuments
+to ambitious chiefs, and there are no records to enlighten us. But these
+relics are convincing proofs that the islands have been inhabited for
+many hundreds of years, and we are left to conjecture regarding the
+origin and history of the people.
+
+The Dance of the Centipede, which Holman and Verslun witnessed in the
+Long Gallery, can be seen to-day by any tourist who leaves the beaten
+paths. Every missionary to the islands can tell of "devil dances" that
+take place in secluded groves, and in which, to his great disgust, his
+converts often take part. It takes time to turn the savage from his old
+beliefs. Although the South Seas constitute the last fortress of
+romance, and a mention of the coral atolls immediately conjures up a
+vision of palms and rice-white beaches, the sensitive person senses the
+dark and bloody past when the wizard men were the rulers, and death
+stalked in the palm groves.
+
+J.F.D.
+New York, March, 1912.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   I. The Song of the Maori
+  II. The Professor's Daughters
+ III. A Knife From the Dark
+  IV. The Storm
+   V. I Make a Promise
+  VI. The Isle of Tears
+ VII. The Pit
+VIII. The Ledge of Death
+  IX. Into the Valley of Echoes
+   X. A Midnight Alarm
+  XI. Kaipi Performs a Service
+ XII. The Devil Dancers
+XIII. Tombs of Silence
+ XIV. Back to the Camp
+  XV. A Day of Skirmishing
+ XVI. The Stone Table
+XVII. Beneath the Centipede
+XVIII. Barbara's Messenger
+  XIX. Leith Scores
+   XX. The Black Kindergarten
+  XXI. Together Again
+ XXII. The White Waterfall
+XXIII. The Wizard's Seat
+ XXIV. The Way to Heaven
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE WATERFALL
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SONG OF THE MAORI
+
+There is a Tongan proverb which tells us that only fools and children
+lie awake during hours that could be devoted to slumber, and it is a
+wise proverb when you judge it from a Polynesian standpoint. No special
+preparations are required for slumber in the last haunts of Romance, and
+as one does not lose caste by dozing in public, the South Sea dweller
+sees no reason for remaining awake when he could be peacefully sleeping.
+The shade of a palm tree furnishes an ideal resting place, and if a dog
+fight occurs in the grass-grown street, he becomes a box-seat spectator
+without moving from his couch. Levuka, the second largest town in the
+Fijis, was dozing on the afternoon of December 14, 1905, and I decided
+to follow the example set by the inhabitants. The thermometer in the
+shack at the end of the wharf registered 98 degrees, but the picturesque
+little town, with its white and vermilion-tinted houses, looked restful
+and cool. The hot, still atmosphere weighed down upon the Pacific,
+ironing out the wind ruffles till the ocean resembled a plain of glass,
+in which the Union Company's steamer _Navua_, from Auckland, appeared to
+be stuck fast, as if the glassy sea had suddenly hardened around her
+black hull.
+
+A thin strip of shadow huddled close to a pile of pearl shell at the end
+of the wharf, and I doubled myself up and attempted to sleep. But
+hardwood planks don't make an ideal resting place. Besides, the rays of
+sun followed the strip of shadow around the pile, and each time I
+slipped into a doze I would be pricked into wakefulness. At last,
+maddened by the biting rays, I collected half a dozen copra bags,
+splintered a piece of _kauri_ pine, and after rigging up one bag as an
+awning, I spread the others on the planks and fell asleep.
+
+But another disturbing element awakened me from a short slumber. From
+the sea end of the deserted wharf came a big, greasy Maori and a
+fuzzy-headed Fijian, and their words went out into the silence like
+sound projectiles. The Maori had such a high-pitched voice that I
+thought, as I rolled over restlessly, he would only have to raise it a
+little to make them hear him up in Sydney, eighteen hundred miles away.
+It was one of those voices that fairly cavort over big distances, and I
+buried my head in the shell as the pair came closer.
+
+It was useless to attempt to shut out that voice. I stuffed a piece of
+bag into the ear that wasn't jammed against the pearl shell, but the
+noise of that fool talking fairly sizzled in my brain. Finally I gave up
+all hopes of trying to sleep till the pair had left the wharf, and I lay
+upon my back as they came slowly up the sun-bitten structure.
+
+It was only when I gave up all thoughts of sleep that I recognized that
+the Maori was talking English. Up to that moment I thought the pair were
+arguing in some unfamiliar tongue, but suddenly their conversation
+gripped me, and I strained my ears to listen.
+
+"There's the white waterfall," chanted the Maori.
+
+"Yes, the white waterfall," repeated the Fijian.
+
+"An' you go along sixty paces."
+
+"To the right?" questioned the Fijian.
+
+"No! To the left, you fool!" screamed his companion.
+
+"All right, you go to the left," muttered the rebuked one. "An' that's
+the way to heaven!" cried the Maori.
+
+"The way to heaven," echoed the Fijian; then the two lifted up their
+voices and chanted:
+
+  "That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven out
+   Of Black Fernando's hell."
+
+The incident stirred my curiosity. If I had only heard the words of the
+chant I would not have puzzled my brain to determine their meaning, but
+it was the manner in which the Maori instructed his friend as to the
+direction in which one must walk from the white waterfall that made me
+interested. I turned the words over in my mind as I watched them saunter
+slowly toward me. Black Fernando's hell and the white waterfall were
+places that I had never heard of. I thought of all the missionary hymns
+that I had ever listened to afloat and ashore, but the lines that the
+pair had chanted were not familiar.
+
+The two walked on in silence for a few minutes after they had lifted up
+their voices in the chant, then the Maori began to cross-question his
+companion concerning the information he had just given him.
+
+"How many paces?" he asked.
+
+"Sixty," answered the Fijian.
+
+"To the right, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, to the right," stammered the learner. "You fool nigger!" screamed
+the instructor. "It is to the left, pig! Do you hear me? You must go to
+the left from the white waterfall! Oh, you blinded fool! you make me
+sick! Sing it now with me!"
+
+The Fijian, who was apparently afraid of the bully, hurried to obey the
+order, and I wondered as I listened.
+
+"Sixty paces to the left," squeaked the Fijian.
+
+"Sixty paces to the left," roared the Maori. "Now together!"
+
+  "That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven out
+   Of----"
+
+I was the cause of the interruption. I lifted myself into a sitting
+position, and the movement disturbed the heap of shell. Part of the pile
+rattled down upon the planks of the wharf, and the Maori and his pupil
+stopped singing and stared at me as if they were much surprised at
+finding any one within hearing distance. The wharf had appeared
+deserted, and I gave them a start by crawling from underneath the awning
+I had made from the copra bag. The Maori wore a dirty khaki coat, with a
+pair of trousers reaching to his knees, while the Fijian, instead of
+being short-rigged in shirt and sulu, sported a full suit of duck.
+"Good afternoon, boss," said the Maori, trying to wipe the look of
+surprise from his face with a grin. "Mighty hot afternoon, isn't it,
+boss?"
+
+"It is," I answered. "If I knew where that white waterfall is I'd go and
+stand under it for a few minutes."
+
+The small Fijian gave a little gurgle of surprise and looked up at his
+big teacher, who regarded me with eyes of wonder.
+
+"What white waterfall, boss?" he asked blandly.
+
+"The one you were singing about," I cried.
+
+The Maori smiled sweetly. "We weren't singing about a white waterfall,
+boss," he spluttered. "I just guess you were asleep an' dreamed
+something."
+
+That didn't improve my temper. I had an edge on the fellow on account of
+the high-powered voice he owned, so when he suggested that I had been
+dreaming, I climbed to my feet so that I could make my words more
+impressive when I started to tell him my opinion of his bluff.
+
+The action startled the Fijian. He had an idea that I was going to use
+the piece of _kauri_ pine upon his head, so he gave a yell and started
+full speed up the wharf toward the town. The Maori stood his ground for
+a minute, then he made a face to express his contempt for me and bolted
+after his mate. I stared at his bare legs walloping the planks, and
+feeling certain that I had lost all chance of finding out where the
+white waterfall and Black Fernando's hell were situated, I found a new
+shadow patch and lay down again.
+
+I fell asleep and dreamed that I was chasing those two islanders in an
+endeavour to find out the meaning of their mysterious chant, but just as
+I had overtaken the pair, some one gripped my arm and shook me gently.
+
+When I opened my eyes I looked up into the face of a good-looking young
+fellow of about two and twenty years, who was smiling broadly as if he
+thought it a great joke to wake a man out of a sound sleep on a hot
+afternoon.
+
+"Are you Jack Verslun?" he asked.
+
+I nodded. It was too warm to use words recklessly.
+
+"Pierre the Rat sent me after you," he continued.
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"I have a berth for you," he answered. "I'm from _The Waif_. The mate
+died on the run down from Sydney, and Captain Newmarch sent me ashore to
+hunt up some one for his perch. Do you want it?"
+
+"Where are you bound?" I asked.
+
+"Manihiki group."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Science expedition under the direction of Professor Herndon of San
+Francisco."
+
+I sat up and looked across the stretch of water at _The Waif_, and the
+young fellow waited patiently. I knew the yacht. An English baronet had
+brought the vessel out from Cowes to Brisbane, but he had made the pace
+too hot in the Colonies. Out in Fortitude Valley one night the keeper of
+a saloon fired a bullet into his aristocratic head, and _The Waif_ was
+auctioned. She had taken a hand in a number of games after that. A fast
+yacht is a handy vessel south of the line, and some queer tales were
+told about the boat that had once shown her heels to the crackerjacks in
+the Solent. But I couldn't afford to be particular at that moment.
+Levuka isn't the spot where a man can pick and choose, so I wiped the
+shell grit from my drill suit and told myself that I had better accept
+the berth instead of waiting in expectation of something better turning
+up. Pierre the Rat, who ran "The Rathole," where penniless seamen and
+beachcombers lodged, was my creditor, and when Pierre was very
+solicitous in obtaining employment for one of his boarders, it was a
+mighty good intimation that the boarder's credit had reached highwater
+mark.
+
+"Well," I said, climbing to my feet, "I might as well take it. I thought
+I had enough of the Islands, but as this has turned up I'm your man.
+Say," I added, "did you ever read Pilgrim's Progress'?"
+
+The young fellow looked at me and grinned. "Yes, I did," he answered.
+
+"Do you remember much of it?" I asked.
+
+"Not much," he replied.
+
+"Is there anything in it about a white waterfall that is on the way to
+heaven out of Black Fernando's hell?" I questioned.
+
+The youngster put his head on one side and looked as if he was turning
+things over in his mental storehouse, then he gave me a quick, shrewd
+glance and burst out laughing.
+
+"Well?" I growled. "What's the grin for?"
+
+"What has Bunyan got to do with my business?" he asked. "I came to sign
+you up for a mate's job on _The Waif_, and I am in a hurry."
+
+"Yes, I know," I grumbled, "but I thought you might have heard something
+of a white waterfall. I'm not sure that it is mentioned in 'Pilgrim's
+Progress,' but it seems to taste of Bunyan."
+
+"P'raps so," said the youngster, "but Bunyan isn't in our line at
+present. Captain Newmarch told me to hurry back to the yacht, as he
+wants to get away by sunset, so if you're ready we'll make a start. My
+name is Holman, Will Holman."
+
+We walked up the quiet street together and I began to like Will Holman.
+One couldn't help but like him. He had the frank, open ways of a boy,
+but the cut of his jaw and the manner in which he minted his words led
+you to believe that he would give a man's account of himself if any one
+pushed him up against a wall. While he made some purchases in the little
+stores, I went up to the broken-down shanty where Pierre the Rat ran his
+house of refuge, and, after I had collected my few belongings, I went
+back to the wharf, where a boat from _The Waif_ was waiting to take us
+aboard the yacht.
+
+It was when I was climbing into the boat that I got a surprise. One of
+the two natives at the oars was the little Fijian who had been the pupil
+of the Maori, but he didn't bat an eyelash when I stared at him.
+
+"What's up?" asked Holman. "Do you know Toni?"
+
+"He's one of the brace that were singing that song about the white
+waterfall," I growled.
+
+The Fijian let out a volley of indignant denials, and Holman laughed.
+
+"You might be mistaken," he said. "Toni came ashore with me about two
+hours ago, but I don't think he left the boat."
+
+"I'm not mistaken," I said, as the Fijian kept on protesting that he had
+never moved from the boat, "but it doesn't matter much. Let it go."
+
+We were about a quarter of a mile from the shore when a man raced down
+from the town, ran along to the sea end of the wharf and waved his arms
+as if he was signalling us. Holman turned and looked at him.
+
+"I wonder who it is?" he muttered. "Perhaps it is somebody with your
+board bill, Verslun."
+
+I started to laugh, then I stopped suddenly. The man on the wharf was
+shouting to us, and when my ears caught a word I recognized him. It was
+the big Maori who had been instructing the Fijian earlier in the
+afternoon.
+
+I told Holman, and he looked at Toni, but Toni's face was blank. For
+some reason or other he wished to ignore his instructor who was
+screaming on the end of the wharf.
+
+"He must be mad," muttered Holman. "The darned fool thinks we--Listen!"
+
+A land breeze brought the last line of the chant to our ears as we
+neared _The Waif_, and the words seemed to stir me curiously as they
+swirled around us. I had a desire to memorize the chant, and even after
+we had got out of range of the high-powered voice of the singer I found
+myself murmuring over and over again the words:
+
+  "That's the way to heaven out
+   Of Black Fernando's hell."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTERS
+
+In the old days, when slave-carrying was a game followed by gentlemen
+with nerve, the officer with the best nose on board the man-o'-war that
+overhauled a suspected slave carrier was always sent aboard to make an
+examination. It was his business to sniff at the air in the hold in an
+endeavour to distinguish the "slave smell." No matter how the wily
+slaver disinfected the place, the odour of caged niggers remained, and a
+long-nosed investigator could always detect it.
+
+Now the trouble odour on board a ship is the same as the slave smell. An
+experienced investigator can detect it immediately, and when I climbed
+over the low bulwarks of _The Waif_ I got a whiff. I couldn't tell
+exactly where it was, but I knew that Dame Trouble was aboard the craft.
+It's a sort of sixth sense with a sailorman to be able to detect a
+stormy atmosphere, and I felt that the yacht wasn't the place that the
+dove of peace would choose as a permanent abode. I don't know how the
+information came to me. It seemed to filter in through the pores of my
+skin, but it was information that I felt sure was correct.
+
+Captain Newmarch was a bilious Englishman with a thin, scrawny beard. He
+endeavoured to make one word do the work of two--or three if they were
+very short words--and working up a conversation with him was as tough a
+job as one could lay hold of. Sometimes a word came to the tip of his
+tongue, felt the atmosphere, as you might say, then slid back into his
+throat with a little protesting gurgle, and after a ten minutes'
+conversation with him, those little gurgles from the strangled words
+made me look upon him as a sort of morgue for murdered sentences.
+
+Professor Herndon, the head of the expedition, was on the deck when the
+captain and I came up out of the cabin, and Herndon was everything the
+comic papers show in the make-up of science professors, with a little
+bit extra for good luck. He was sixty inches of nerves, wrinkles, and
+whiskers, with special adornments in the shape of a blue smoking cap,
+and a pair of spectacles with specially ground lenses of an enormous
+thickness.
+
+Newmarch grunted something which the Professor and I took to be an
+introduction, and he put a skinny hand into mine.
+
+"You have been a long while in the Islands?" he squeaked.
+
+"Longer than I care to say," I replied.
+
+"Have you been around the spot we are making for?" he asked.
+
+"I was on Penrhyn Island for three months," I answered. "I was helping a
+German scientist who was studying the family habits of turtles."
+
+I made a foolish break by admitting that I possessed any knowledge of
+Polynesia. The Professor had left his home at sunny Sausalito, on the
+shores of San Francisco Bay, in search of that kind of stuff, and before
+I could do a conversational backstep he had pushed me against the side
+of the galley and was deluging me with questions, the answers to which
+he entered in shorthand in a notebook that was bulkier than a Dutchman's
+Bible. The old spectacled ancient could fire more queries in three
+minutes than any human gatling that ever gripped a brief, and I looked
+around for relief.
+
+And the wonder is that the relief came. I forgot the Professor and his
+anxiety concerning the "temba-temba" devil dance when my eyes happened
+to catch sight of the vision that was approaching from the companionway.
+A boat carrying a science expedition to one of the loneliest groups in
+the Pacific was not the place where one would expect to find the
+handsomest girl in all the world, and my tongue refused to mould my
+words. The girl was tall, of graceful build, and possessed of a quiet
+beauty that had a most peculiar effect upon me. Only that afternoon, as
+I lay in the shadow of the pile of pearl shell on Levuka wharf, I had
+thought of crossing to Auckland and shipping up to 'Frisco so that I
+could hear good women laugh and talk as I had heard them in my dreams
+during the years I had spent around the Islands, and now the woman of my
+dreams was in front of me. But I was afraid of her. When she came toward
+me I thought of the years I had wasted down in that lonely quarter where
+ambition is strangled by lassitude bred in tropical sunshine, and the
+ghost of the man I might have been banged me fair between the two eyes.
+
+"My daughter, Miss Edith Herndon," squeaked the Professor, and when I
+put out my big hand to take her little one I thought I'd fall down on
+the deck on account of the Niagara of blood that seemed to rush to my
+brain.
+
+It's funny how all the little imperfections in your dress and manner
+rise up suddenly and bang you hard on the bump of observation when you
+find yourself in front of some one whose good opinion you want to earn.
+I felt it so the moment I stood before the girl in the cream serge suit.
+My drill outfit, that I had thought rather clean when I brushed the
+shell grit from it after my sleep on the wharf, looked as black as the
+devil's tail when she appeared. My hands appeared to be several degrees
+larger than the prize hams that come out of Kansas, and my tongue, as if
+it recognized the stupidity of the remarks I attempted to make, started
+to play fool stunts as if it wanted to go down my throat and choke me to
+death.
+
+The girl guessed the sort of predicament I was in at that moment. God
+only knows how many months had passed since I had spoken to a woman like
+her. Not that good women are lacking in the Islands, but because they
+were on a different plane to me. I had been belting native crews on
+trading schooners between the Carolines and the Marquesas, and when
+ashore I had little opportunity for speaking to a woman of the type of
+Edith Herndon.
+
+And she understood the feeling that held me tongue-tied. To make me feel
+at my ease she started to tell of everything that had happened from the
+moment that _The Waif_ had cleared Sydney Heads, and the time she
+spent in that recital was as precious to me as the two-minute interval
+between rounds is to a prize-fighter who has been knocked silly the
+moment before the round ends. I had shaken the dizziness out of my head
+when she finished, and I had obtained control over my tongue.
+
+"You must tell us a lot about the South Seas," she cried. "You have been
+down here such a long time that you must have many interesting things to
+relate. Captain Newmarch will not talk, and Mr. Leith refuses to see
+anything picturesque in the sights he has seen during his wanderings."
+
+"Who is Mr. Leith?" I asked.
+
+"He is father's partner in this expedition," she said quietly. "He has
+lived down here for many years, but he will not tell us much. And
+Barbara is anxious to know everything she can."
+
+"Barbara?" I stammered. "Then--then there is another lady aboard?"
+
+"Oh, yes! my sister," cried the girl. "I think I hear her coming now."
+
+There was no question about the latter part of her remark. A burst of
+laughter that was more infectious than influenza came from the
+companion-stairs, and immediately in its wake came a girl who made me
+think, as I compared her to Miss Edith, of a beautiful yacht alongside a
+stately liner. Barbara Herndon was sunshine personified. Laughter went
+with her wherever she went, and a pair of Tongans, polishing brasses,
+immediately put their molars on view, as if they had understood what
+caused the smiles upon her pretty face as she came toward us.
+
+"Oh, you are the new mate?" she cried, as I was introduced. "Mr. Holman
+was just telling me about you. He said that you repeated a chapter of
+'Pilgrim's Progress' every time you woke up after a sleep."
+
+I blushed as I made a mental resolve that I would punch the head of that
+youngster when I had a suitable opportunity, and in between my
+stammering explanations I made notes on the differences between the two
+girls. Edith was as stately as Juno, with a face that was so sweet and
+restful that a glance at it was better than an opiate for a man whose
+nerves were all out of tune. She had that kind of repose that you see
+sometimes on the face of an Oriental statue, the repose that comes to
+women who have met great trials or for whom great trials are waiting.
+Barbara was altogether different. She found the world rather an amusing
+place, and it seemed as if she took it for granted that her sister was
+capable of shouldering the cares of the family, leaving her free to
+smile at all the amusing incidents she found in the course of the day.
+
+It appeared to me that I was an amusing incident to her at that moment.
+She returned to the fool story that Holman had told, and I couldn't
+sidestep her questions.
+
+"But it is true that you were quoting Bunyan on the wharf when Mr.
+Holman found you, isn't it?" she asked mischievously.
+
+"No, it isn't true," I spluttered. "I only asked Mr. Holman a question
+to see if he was familiar with 'Pilgrim's Progress'."
+
+"Why did you ask him that?" she quizzed. "I'm sure he looks a perfectly
+respectable young man."
+
+Miss Edith was smiling, but she took pity upon me at last and
+endeavoured to rescue me from my tormentor.
+
+"Oh, Barbara!" she cried reprovingly, "Mr. Verslun will think you are
+very inquisitive. You must not pry into his private affairs."
+
+"But it is nothing private," I gurgled. "I simply asked Mr. Holman a
+question in an endeavour to find out what a Maori and a Fijian were
+talking about."
+
+"Oh, it is something mysterious!" cried the younger girl. "I knew it! I
+knew it! We are getting into the region of mystery at last! Oh, Mr.
+Verslun, you are a perfect treasure! It has been a nasty, dull, old trip
+from the moment we left Sydney Harbour, and you are the first person to
+bring a little colour into the voyage."
+
+She was so worked up at the thought of hearing something wonderfully
+mysterious and romantic that I started to make a long yarn out of that
+incident on the wharf just for her benefit. Miss Edith was interested
+too, but I was convinced, as I polished up the points of the little tale
+and endeavoured to pull in a thrill, that the elder sister was deriving
+her pleasure from watching the face of the younger one, and not from my
+story.
+
+"It pleases Barbara," she cried, when I had told how Toni had denied all
+knowledge of his friend, and how the Maori had sent the farewell chant
+after the boat. "She thinks she will see and hear wonderful things
+before we get back to civilization."
+
+"I hope she will," I said, and little did I dream that the wish I
+expressed at that moment should come true in such a remarkable manner
+before we had returned.
+
+"And you don't know what they meant by their song about the white
+waterfall and Black Fernando's hell?" murmured Barbara.
+
+"No, I don't," I replied. "The Maori ran away when I attempted to
+cross-examine him, and Toni denies all knowledge of the duet on the
+wharf."
+
+"Oh, we must ask him again!" she cried. "There he is near the wheel.
+I'll go and bring him!"
+
+She raced madly after the Fijian and hauled him before us in triumph. I
+was more convinced than ever that it was Toni who had blundered over
+his lesson on the wharf, but Toni denied the charge more vehemently than
+he did on the boat. He asserted in reply to Barbara Herndon's questions,
+that he could not sing a note, that he was absolutely ignorant of white
+waterfalls, and the only hell he knew was the one spoken of by the
+missionary in Lower George Street, Sydney; and the girl sighed as she
+gave up the effort.
+
+"It seemed such a nice mystery to unravel," she murmured, "but if Toni
+persists in saying that he knows nothing of the white waterfall the
+investigation falls to the ground."
+
+The Fijian was backing away with renewed protestations when a head came
+round the corner of the galley, and a voice that was deeper than the
+caves of Atiu fired a question at us.
+
+"What about the white waterfall?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Leith," cried Miss Barbara, "we have just been investigating a
+mystery. Mr. Verslun discovered it this afternoon in Levuka. But you
+haven't met Mr. Verslun yet, have you?"
+
+"I haven't," growled the owner of the voice.
+
+"Mr. Verslun, this is Mr. Leith, who is father's partner," said Miss
+Barbara. "He knows a lot about the Islands, but he refuses to tell any
+of his experiences."
+
+I looked at the man who stood in front of me, and a curious thing
+flashed through my mind. I was reminded at that moment of a story I had
+read of a man charged with an attempt upon the life of a prince. The
+would-be murderer informed the judge that a terrible hate of the
+princeling had gripped him the moment he put eyes on him, and he had
+made the attempt upon his life before he had managed to control the
+unexplainable surge of hate. I understood the emotion that had gripped
+that unfortunate as I stood face to face with Leith. A feeling of
+revulsion gripped me, and I experienced a peculiar squalmy sensation as
+I took his hand. It was unexplainable. Perhaps some ancestor of mine had
+unsatisfactory dealings with a man of the same unusual type in a faraway
+past, and the transmitted hate had suddenly sprung into the conscious
+area. I do know that you can keep a secretary-bird away from snakes till
+it grows old, but the first reptile it sees it immediately starts out to
+beat him up. I had the inherited hate that makes the secretary-bird rush
+madly at a snake that may be the first of its species that it has ever
+seen, and I guess that Leith had no love to spare for me from the moment
+he took my hand.
+
+He was a huge brute, fully six feet tall, and he was the possessor of
+two of the strongest-looking hands I had ever seen. They were claws,
+that's what they were. The great fingers were slightly crooked, as if
+waiting, like the tentacles of an octopus, for something to get in their
+grip. The body was heavy, and, in a manner that I cannot explain, it
+made me think of animals that lived and died in long past ages. The big
+brute looked so capable of making an inexcusable attack that one's
+primitive instincts warned one to keep in a state of readiness for the
+onslaught that seemed imminent.
+
+But it was the face that was specially unattractive. It was a sallow,
+flat face, and the strange eyes did nothing to lighten it. They were
+dead, lustreless eyes. They had a coldness in them that reminded me of
+the icicle eyes of the crocodile, and, curiously, I associated that
+reptile's notions of fair warfare with Leith as I looked at him. That
+sullen face, with the eyes that would never brighten at a tale of
+daring, or dim from a story of pathos, belonged to a man who would
+imitate crocodile tactics by lying quiet till his prey was within
+striking distance.
+
+"What is all this about the white waterfall?" he repeated, after the
+crooked fingers had dropped my hand.
+
+"Oh, it's something that happened to Mr. Verslun," replied Miss Barbara.
+
+"Where?" asked Leith.
+
+"On the wharf over there," I answered coldly, nodding toward the
+structure as I spoke. "It's really nothing important though, and I
+related it solely for Miss Herndon's amusement."
+
+"But Toni?" he growled, turning toward the two girls.
+
+"Oh, Toni puts forward an alibi," laughed the youngest sister. "He
+asserts that he was in the boat when the incident happened and he
+persists in saying that he knows nothing about the matter."
+
+Leith again turned toward me, and his brows straightened as he looked me
+in the eyes. "Can't you tell the story over again?" he asked.
+
+"I'd rather not," I said, somewhat rudely. "I'm tired of it. It was
+really only a small happening that I am afraid I expanded a little in an
+endeavour to thrill Miss Herndon, and the story is now her personal
+property."
+
+"But the bare facts?" he growled.
+
+"There are no bare facts," I replied. "I covered them with fiction, and
+I think Miss Herndon is going to copyright the whole."
+
+He took the remark as a direct refusal on my part to give him an outline
+of the affair to satisfy his curiosity, and I felt elated at noting the
+sudden glint of anger that appeared in the lustreless eyes.
+
+The two girls stood silent for a moment while Leith and I surveyed each
+other without speaking, then a Tahitian boy broke the awkward silence by
+informing me that the captain wished to see me in the cabin, and I
+hurriedly excused myself to the sisters and went below.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A KNIFE FROM THE DARK
+
+It was after nine o'clock that evening before I again saw young Holman,
+and by that time Levuka was far behind. We had taken advantage of a
+stiff breeze that had sprung up about sunset, and _The Waif_ was
+plunging through a moon-washed ocean, sending furrows of foam from her
+forefoot while the wind snored through her canvas. I forgot the
+happenings of the day as I felt the quivering vessel that seemed to
+thrill with the ecstasy of life as she flung herself at the watery
+wastes ahead. The tremor in her boards seemed to crawl into my body and
+warm me like wine, and I felt inclined to bless Holman instead of
+punching his head as I had thought of doing during the baiting I
+received from Miss Barbara Herndon. The youngster had saved me from days
+and nights of weary monotony in sleepy Levuka, and I welcomed him gladly
+as he joined me on the poop.
+
+"Say, you made a hit with the ladies!" he cried. "Your fame as a
+story-teller is set upon a solid foundation. And I don't suppose you are
+inclined to thank me for giving you the opportunity to tell of the
+wonderful things that happened while you slumbered on the wharf?"
+
+"Drop it," I growled; "I've had enough of the joke. By the way, what
+position do you hold in the expedition?"
+
+The boy laughed. "I hold none," he cried, "but I'm trying to make myself
+useful to the Professor so that he'll invite me to come ashore with him.
+The Professor and his daughters, with Leith and half a dozen natives,
+comprise the full strength of the expedition, and I'm trying hard for an
+invitation to the field of wonders."
+
+"But what are you doing aboard?" I asked.
+
+"My uncle owns _The Waif_," answered the young fellow, "and he thought
+this trip would be a nice cheap holiday for me. I wanted to take a run
+to the States, but that would have cost him money, so I allowed myself
+to be forced aboard the yacht. But, Gee! I'm mighty glad I came now."
+
+I glanced at his face as we turned in our walk, but he moved his head
+away quickly.
+
+"So it has been pleasant?" I said.
+
+"Pleasant?" he cried. "Why it has been a little foretaste of heaven.
+Say, I like you, and I know you like her by the manner in which you
+explained everything to her. Don't you think she's a jolly nice girl?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, Miss Barbara Herndon," he cried.
+
+"Oh!" I gurgled. "You took me by surprise, and I hardly knew--well, I
+didn't know what had made the trip so pleasant."
+
+He put out his hand, and I gripped it warmly. There was something clean
+and good about the youngster. When he glanced up at me as I took his
+hand, I looked into a face that was as open as the day--a face that
+possessed all the passionate purity of youth, and my grip was sincere.
+One didn't ask for credentials in dealing with Will Holman.
+
+"I liked you from the start," he said, "but I wanted the opinion of the
+girls. That's why I put Miss Barbara up to the game of firing questions
+at you about that silly business on the wharf."
+
+"And did I pass muster?" I queried.
+
+"Sure you did!" he cried enthusiastically. "Miss Barbara Herndon says
+that you are true blue, and Miss Edith--"
+
+He stopped and looked at a patch of shadow near the galley. "Some one is
+hiding there," he whispered. "I saw him sneak into it."
+
+"Nonsense!" I growled. "The moon and something else are affecting your
+brain."
+
+"But I'm sure of it," he gasped.
+
+He sprang for the spot as he finished speaking, but he found nothing. He
+returned to my side shaking his head as if only half convinced about the
+matter.
+
+"Some one was listening to us talking, but whoever it was he managed to
+slip away while we were arguing the question."
+
+"Well, he didn't learn much," I said. "It was probably one of the
+islanders, and you've scared the life out of him now."
+
+Holman gripped my arm as I turned away, and he put a question in a tense
+whisper.
+
+"What do you think of Leith?" he asked.
+
+Somehow the question did not surprise me, but I was not in a hurry to
+give my opinion of the, Professor's partner.
+
+"I have only spoken a few words to him," I countered cautiously.
+
+"But your impression?" stammered the youngster. "Don't you think--well,
+of course you haven't got the lay of things yet."
+
+I smiled at the guilelessness of the boy who was making a confidant of
+a stranger. "What's wrong with Leith?" I asked. "What are you hinting
+at?"
+
+Holman glanced at the Tongan at the wheel, then at the shadow patch that
+had disturbed his nerves a few moments before.
+
+"He's the devil!" he whispered.
+
+I felt inclined to laugh. Leith was certainly not a person that one
+would take to the moment an introduction was given, but the manner in
+which the young fellow had imparted his opinion was amusing. But it was
+evident that I had not guessed wrong when I divined trouble the moment I
+came over the side of the yacht.
+
+Holman caught my coat with his left hand as we turned, and he spoke
+excitedly.
+
+"Do you know what we're after?" he queried hoarsely.
+
+"It's a scientific expedition," I replied. "That's what you and Captain
+Newmarch told me, and I have not questioned any one else."
+
+"But do you know the particular line we are after?"
+
+"No," I replied.
+
+"Well, we're after skulls. Leith has told the Professor about some
+ancient boneyard that he knows of, and he's dragging old Herndon down
+there."
+
+"I cannot see the crime now," I said. "I've gone after skulls before
+to-day. I brought a hundred of them up to Vavau for a German scientist
+last year. He was taking them home to European museums to prove that the
+Polynesians of ten centuries back had bigger brains than the niggers of
+to-day."
+
+"Yes, I know that," gurgled Holman; "but Leith--oh, damn it! I can't get
+you to understand! He pulled the Professor into this deal, and the old
+man is as green as grass. Herndon supplied the money and all that, and
+he's that much of a silly old doodlebug that this fellow is buncoing him
+out of his good gold."
+
+"Yes," I muttered; "and what do his daughters say?"
+
+"Say?" cried the youngster. "They can say nothing that will do any good
+when they are talking to a madman. He sees Fame coming down the pike,
+and he's blind to all the tricks of that devil. It's a fact, Verslun!
+Leith is after the old man's cash--and after Edith Herndon as well."
+
+I stood and looked at the youngster. His boyish face was aflame with
+indignation, and any suspicions I had regarding his good intentions were
+swept away immediately.
+
+"After Edith Herndon?" I repeated slowly.
+
+"Yes!" he gasped. "Oh, I knew you didn't like the big, sallow brute.
+Miss Barbara told me how you turned him down cold when he wanted you to
+repeat that yarn to satisfy his curiosity. He's a bad egg, do you hear?
+He's out for trouble, and we're going to run into it head on before we
+finish the trip. Only for the girls I would have stayed ashore at
+Levuka."
+
+"And the captain?" I questioned.
+
+"We don't know about him," he snapped. "He's Leith's captain. I mean
+Leith put him in his job when the Professor chartered the yacht. Anyhow,
+he doesn't say enough to let any one know which side of the fence he is
+on. He has only learned to say yes and no, and he is mighty particular
+about the number of times he will use those words."
+
+I laughed at the bitterness the youngster threw into his speech. It is
+good to be young. One can love and hate with some intensity, and it
+appeared to me that Holman had found marks for both adoration and hatred
+on the yacht that was slipping into the mysterious islands of the South
+Sea.
+
+"You mustn't look at the black side of things," I said. "Leith's face is
+not a likable one, I will admit, but a lot of good fellows have ugly
+dials. It seems that the Professor wants skulls, and it appears that
+Leith knows of a spot where he can gather up the oldest specimens in
+Polynesia. There's nothing wrong about that. As to Miss Herndon, she
+struck me as being a young lady who was well able to look after
+herself."
+
+"That's all right," stammered the youngster. "Perhaps I said too much,
+but I had to speak to you."
+
+"And I'm mighty glad you did!" I cried.
+
+He gripped my hand and turned away, leaving me to my own reflections. It
+was a wonderful night. The silvery sea through which _The Waif_ drove
+a path with plunging forefoot awoke strange dreams and fancies within my
+brain. All the mystery of the tropic night welled up around me, and my
+soul seemed to have suddenly awakened to the beauty of life. The veil of
+morbid pessimism that came before my eyes during the weary days I had
+spent upon the beach at Levuka was torn aside, and a wave of gladness
+entered my being. I felt that the voyage would be an eventful one to me,
+and I tramped the poop with a light step. Occasionally the sallow
+features of Leith persisted in rising before my mental vision to blot
+out the dream face that was continually before me, but I resolutely put
+the Professor's partner from my mind and fed myself upon the visions
+bred by the splendour of the night.
+
+Holman had left me about an hour when I happened to glance at the patch
+of shadow that had attracted his attention while he was talking to me.
+I stopped and watched it intently. Some one had crawled into the
+velvety strip and was lying perfectly still.
+
+"Who is there?" I asked.
+
+There was no answer. The strip of shadow broadened and narrowed as _The
+Waif_ plunged, but I could discern nothing. Outside the captain and
+myself, the crew of _The Waif_, together with the six men that were with
+the Professor's party, were all natives, and I wondered as I watched the
+shadow why one should be crawling around as if afraid of being seen. It
+was possible that he was attempting to thieve something from the galley,
+and it was also possible that he was spying, as Holman had suggested.
+
+I picked up a small iron pin and tossed it at the spot where I felt sure
+the islander was hiding. I didn't throw the pin with any force, although
+the yell that came out of the shadow would convince an onlooker that I
+had thrown it with murderous intent.
+
+I sprang forward while the shriek of pain was still vibrating in the
+air, but the native was determined to have revenge for the rap from the
+iron pin. A knife flashed in the moonlight, and I staggered as the blade
+touched my forehead like a tongue of flame. A dark figure dashed along
+the deck toward the forecastle, and brushing the blood from my eyes I
+started in pursuit.
+
+At the head of the companion-stairs I collided heavily with Newmarch,
+who had just rushed up from the cabin, and the force of the shock nearly
+threw him off his feet.
+
+"Confound it!" he cried. "What's the matter with you?"
+
+"One of the Kanakas nearly cut my eye out!" I roared. "He flung a knife
+at me and ducked for the f'c'stle."
+
+I left him standing in angry astonishment and rushed forward. I stood at
+the top of the ladder and listened. The only noises that came up were
+the shrill snores of the islanders, but the blood that streamed down my
+face made me forget prudence, and I scrambled down into the stuffy
+quarters, where the odour of natives was overwhelming.
+
+A swinging lamp dimly illuminated the place, and I snatched it from its
+hook and swung it over the face of the naked occupant of the first bunk.
+A glance convinced me that his sleep was genuine. His mouth was wide
+open as he snored, and the native who feigns sleep hasn't enough sense
+to make his imitation more real by opening his mouth.
+
+The man in the next bunk, a muscular Kanaka, had his face turned away
+from me, and in spite of his prolonged snore my suspicions were aroused.
+I thrust my hand beneath the single blanket that covered him, and was
+immediately convinced that I had discovered the culprit. The blanket was
+cold.
+
+"Here, you scoundrel!" I yelled, dropping the lamp and poking him
+roughly in the ribs. "What the devil do you mean by trying to knife me?"
+
+He opened his big eyes and stared at me stupidly, while the occupants of
+the other bunks, who were aroused by my shout, sat up and rubbed their
+eyes.
+
+"Why did you throw that knife?" I screamed.
+
+"I no throw knife," he muttered. "Me sleep, very tired."
+
+The pain of my wound maddened me, and I seized him roughly and dragged
+him toward the ladder with the intention of bringing him before the
+bilious captain.
+
+I had grasped a rung to haul myself up when a heavy boot came down on my
+fingers and the voice of the captain screamed an objection.
+
+"Stop that business!" he shrieked.
+
+"But this devil tried to knife me!" I protested.
+
+"Let him go!" yelled Newmarch. "Do you hear me? Let him go this
+instant!"
+
+I let go my grip of the Kanaka, who immediately dived for his bunk and
+curled himself up as if he had no further interest in the proceedings.
+The captain was beside me then, and his quick breathing betrayed his
+excitement. As I lifted the lamp back to its place the light fell upon
+his thin features; their pallor surprised me as much as his words.
+
+"Too many wonderful things happen to you!" he stammered.
+
+"Why--what do you mean?" I queried.
+
+"Never mind!" he snapped. "If you start a rough house on board this boat
+I'll stop you before you get well under way."
+
+I was too astounded to reply. The blood upon my face and hands was plain
+evidence of the wound I had received, and the captain's indifference
+left me breathless. Without another word he turned and scrambled up on
+deck, and I followed.
+
+Once out of earshot of the listening crew I determined to make another
+effort to show him that my conduct was justified.
+
+"That devil was sneaking in the shadow of the galley all the evening," I
+cried. "I attempted to stir him out and he jerked the knife at me."
+
+He stopped in front of me, made one of his conversational feints by
+opening his mouth and shutting it again, then dived hastily for the
+companion, leaving me to search for sympathy in the moonlit night. I
+remembered as I endeavoured to staunch the wound, the question which I
+had put to Holman concerning the captain only an hour before, and I
+smiled grimly as I bound my handkerchief about my forehead. Captain
+Newmarch of _The Waif_ hadn't risen in my estimation since the moment I
+made the inquiry.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE STORM
+
+Holman glanced inquiringly at the piece of sticking plaster above my
+right eye when he met me on the deck the morning after the knife
+incident, and I grinned sheepishly.
+
+"You were right about that patch of shadow last night," I remarked.
+
+"How?" he queried.
+
+"This came from it," I replied, touching the plaster with my finger as I
+spoke.
+
+The boy whistled and looked around cautiously. "You'll be getting wise
+in a day or two," he murmured. "She said you would when I told her this
+morning about our conversation of last night."
+
+I laughed, and he turned suddenly toward me. "Do you think we'll put in
+anywhere in the Samoan Group?"
+
+"I don't think so," I replied. "Why?"
+
+Holman came closer. "If we do I'm going to get the girls ashore and keep
+them there," he muttered. "I don't care what you think of the
+proposition. This trip is going to be a tough one, and I'm certain there
+is some deviltry afoot."
+
+I tried to laugh at the serious face upon the youngster, but the
+conviction which he threw into his words choked my mirth. Whether it was
+the little brush with the Kanaka or the gloomy forebodings of the boy I
+couldn't tell, but I felt a trifle anxious after my first night aboard
+_The Waif_.
+
+"But there is nothing to be gained by running away if we do put in to a
+port," I growled.
+
+"How is that?" stammered Holman.
+
+"Well, if Leith is an admirer of Edith Herndon, as you say," I argued,
+"and if the captain is in league with Leith, the yacht wouldn't leave
+till the girls came aboard. Besides, the Professor wouldn't go on
+without them."
+
+"I don't know about the Professor," grunted Holman. "That old doodlebug
+only thinks of the silly specimens that he is going to collect down
+here. If he had any love for his daughters he wouldn't have brought them
+along."
+
+"But you told me they insisted on coming."
+
+"So they did!" he retorted savagely. "But they knew that the poor old
+fool was in the hands of a scoundrel and they wouldn't let him go alone.
+They think they can protect him from that devil, and it nearly makes me
+cry to hear them say so."
+
+Miss Edith Herndon and her sister came up on deck at that moment, and if
+I was impressed by the calm sweetness of the elder girl's face on the
+previous afternoon, the strength and beauty of it as I saw it in the
+fresh morning sunlight made my heart pound violently against my ribs.
+The prettiness of Miss Barbara made the quiet dignity of the elder
+sister more noticeable, and that apparent strength of character made me
+doubt Holman's contention that she would be unable to help the scientist
+if Leith's motives were discovered to be criminal.
+
+It was Barbara's keen eyes that detected my plaster, and I squirmed as I
+saw the light of curiosity in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, tell us how it happened!" she cried. "Please make it a night attack
+upon the yacht, Mr. Verslun! I heard a wild cry just after I retired and
+I felt sure that war canoes had surrounded us. They always surround the
+ill-fated ship, don't they?" she continued merrily. "And the ship is
+always ill-fated in all the really thrilling sea stories I have read!"
+
+Leith came sauntering aft as she fired her questions at me, and he
+stood near Miss Edith with his dull eyes fixed upon me as I answered.
+
+"I'm afraid I cannot feed your imagination to-day," I replied. "I
+tripped over a coil of rope, and the deck sprang up and bumped me."
+
+I glanced at Leith as I spoke, and I fancied I detected a glint of
+amusement in the lustreless eyes that were turned in my direction.
+Whether it was caused by my hastily constructed lie or by the girl's
+inquiries I could not tell, but my dislike for the clumsy giant made me
+suspicious about his knowledge of the incident of the preceding evening,
+and I felt certain that he was smiling at my fib.
+
+As if he wished to do something which would convince me of his ignorance
+of the happening, he hastily changed the subject.
+
+"The captain thinks we are in for a spell of bad weather, Mr. Verslun,"
+he drawled; "are you of the same opinion?"
+
+"If signs go for anything we are," I replied. "We are running into a
+zone of trouble."
+
+He walked away without further speech, and the two girls went below in
+response to a message from their father. The Professor was slightly
+indisposed, and he demanded that his daughters remain with him in the
+cabin. The selfishness of the scientist irritated Holman exceedingly,
+and he made bitter comments about him during the hour or two he kept me
+company.
+
+"I never yet met one of those scientific gazaboos who didn't think he
+was something more than mortal," he growled. "I try to keep on good
+terms with the old bone measurer, but his vanity nearly turns me sick.
+Do you know what he told me yesterday?"
+
+"What?" I asked, amused at the youngster's annoyance.
+
+"Said that he might mention my name in the report of the expedition that
+he would send to some old research society in the States. When I didn't
+show any signs of elation he got offended, so I guess I'm cut out of the
+history."
+
+He went grumbling down into the cabin, and I watched the ocean. The
+barometer was low, and out of the west a pack of fat black clouds
+swarmed up from the horizon, stacking themselves one upon another till
+they resembled a huge pile of rounded boulders which a sudden puff of
+wind might bring toppling down upon us. The faint scouting puffs of
+air--"the devil's breath" of the poetical Polynesians--whined through
+the stays, but the small waves that tried to rise in expectation were
+clouted back by the heavy, oppressive atmosphere that ironed out the
+ocean till one's imagination pictured it waiting for the word like a
+strained runner on his mark.
+
+It burst at last. Three violent blasts ripped over us like projectiles,
+and the "song of the dead men" was twanged upon the straining ropes.
+_The Waif_ stopped for an instant, as if debating whether she would run
+or cower before the onslaught, then she dipped her nose into the mad
+lather that rose around her and plunged forward. That jump seemed to be
+a challenge to the storm. It burst upon us in all its fury, and the
+yacht became a tiny seesaw upon the murderous Himalayas that rose around
+us.
+
+Great chunks of green water came hurtling over the rail, thundering down
+upon us till _The Waif_ was buried in a boiling turmoil from which she
+would leap and shake herself, only to be pulled down again when the next
+sea fell upon us. When she sprang out of the lather, those devilish,
+snarling, snaky waves sprang after her, slapping at her flanks, tearing
+and biting at her like a pack of wolves. There's an awful likeness to a
+wolf pack about storm waves. When you see them all foam-lathered
+stretching out like a pack in full cry, or watch them leaping up as if
+they were trying to see whether the unfortunate ship had been torn down
+by one of their band, you begin to credit them with some sort of
+intelligence.
+
+_The Waif_ was no poppycock yacht, built to dodge about the Solent and
+run for Cowes if the wind blew a capful. She had been built to hold her
+own with the hardest slamming seas that ever chased a shattered hull,
+and it was lucky for us that she was. The storm that came screeching
+after us from way across the Coral Sea was one of those high-powered
+freak disturbances that juggle with lumps of water like a vaudeville
+performer juggling with cheap crockery. It took the tops off those
+rollers and pelted them at us, and the wind seemed to yell in triumph
+when the yacht was buried in the whirlpools in which she dived headlong.
+
+All through the night we raced before it, and through the following day
+_The Waif_ never paused for an instant in her mad race to the eastward.
+The Kanakas became demoralized with fear, and I forgot the trouble
+hanging over the heads of the girls and their father as I helped
+Newmarch drag the crew from their bunks to cut away the wreckage of the
+vessel.
+
+I saw a new side of the captain during those hours. A very devil of
+energy took hold of him with the coming of the storm, and he became a
+human dynamo. He pounded the frightened crew unmercifully, dragging the
+screaming islanders back to their work by the hair of their heads, and
+heaping upon them curses that were strange and blood-curdling. That he
+was a good sailorman I had little doubt. He handled _The Waif_ with
+skill and patience, while the crew, with rolling eyes and quivering
+lips, were so terrorized by his wrath that they fled to do his bidding.
+
+I had been wondering since the moment when he had ordered me to let go
+my grip of the Kanaka in the f'c'stle, if he was afraid that any
+disagreement between me and the knife-thrower would start trouble with
+the crew, but from the way he hazed the niggers during the storm I was
+convinced that it was not through any fear of them that he ordered me to
+leave my assailant alone. The conviction did not increase my love for
+him. As I viewed the happening he was inclined to shield the big brute
+who threw the knife simply because the offence did not appear to be one
+that merited punishment, and this view was not pleasing to my nerves.
+
+It was on the second day of the storm that a little incident happened
+which is worth mentioning. Toni, the small Fijian who had chanted the
+song of Black Fernando's hell, was caught by a huge wave and pounded
+hard against the cabin. The mad turmoil of water swept his nearly
+lifeless form into the scuppers, but before another comber could snatch
+him overboard, I managed to reach his side and drag him into safety.
+
+I forgot the incident in the whirl of happenings that followed, but the
+Fijian had a longer memory. Late that afternoon he was holding the wheel
+with Soma, the big Kanaka who had jerked the knife at me, and as I
+stopped to peer at the binnacle he beckoned me toward him.
+
+"That was me that sing," he shrieked, as I put down my head. "I tell
+damn big lie you an' Miss Herndon."
+
+"Why?" I asked, amused at the peculiar manner in which he tried to
+express his gratitude for the rescue of the morning.
+
+"Big Jacky tell me not say anything," he screamed. "He tell it to me one
+big secret all that talk about waterfall. Tell me not to tell any one.
+You know why?"
+
+I glanced at Soma and found that he was straining his ears to catch the
+words the other was shrieking, and as I was more than suspicious of him,
+I promptly closed the conversation.
+
+"I'll see you in the morning," I roared.
+
+The Fijian nodded and I fought my way forward, wondering as I clung to
+the rigging what the pupil of the Maori had to tell me about the song.
+
+The wind had ceased somewhat on the morning of the third day, but the
+snaky rollers were still racing after the flying yacht. A watery sun
+peeped out from between the driving cloud masses, the rays glinting
+through the heads of the waves that curled menacingly as the battered
+yacht drove through them.
+
+Newmarch hailed me from the poop when I came on deck, and there was a
+peculiar look upon his scrawny features as he addressed me.
+
+"Do you know that nigger you rescued?" he asked.
+
+"Toni?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What about him?"
+
+"You did your heroic stunt for nothing," he remarked. "The fool can't be
+found, so I guess he went overboard in the night."
+
+The news came as a shock to me. Toni's last question that he had put as
+he clung to the wheel with Soma had flashed through my mind several
+times through the night. He had asked it in a manner that insinuated
+that I might be interested in the reasons why Big Jacky, his companion
+on the wharf at Levuka, wished the whereabouts of the white waterfall to
+remain a secret, and now his disappearance blocked my inquiries. I felt
+annoyed with myself for not listening to what the Fijian had to say at
+the moment he confessed that he had lied, and then the face of the
+listening Soma came up before my mental eye. Soma was a person that I
+was beginning to cordially dislike.
+
+I turned to Newmarch and fired a question at him.
+
+"Do you think he was helped overboard?"
+
+"Why, no," he said slowly. "Why do you think that?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," I replied. "I thought his narrow escape of the morning
+would have made him careful."
+
+It was a few hours after this conversation that I had my first chance
+of speaking to Edith Herndon since the moment we had run into the
+disturbance. The girl poked her head out of the companionway, and I
+hastened to assist her out on deck. It was her first sight of the damage
+which the storm had done to the yacht, and she gave a cry of alarm as
+she looked at the splintered spars and the cordage that cracked in the
+wind like the whips of invisible devils.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Verslun, we are a wreck!" she cried.
+
+"Not quite," I said, gripping her arm to steady her as _The Waif_ took
+a header. "We've weathered the worst of it and we're still sound. The
+storm centre has slipped away to the north, and we can count ourselves
+out of the ruction for the present."
+
+Her shapely hand clutched my wet oilskins as the yacht plunged from the
+back of an enormous swell, and I was so busy noting the beauty of the
+hand that I had no eye for the sallow face that peeped from the
+companion. Leith's bass voice rose above the noise of the waves, and
+there was an angry note in it.
+
+"This isn't a nice place for you, Miss Edith!" he cried.
+
+The girl half turned her head, looked at him for a second, then without
+any intimation that she had heard what he said, she turned again toward
+me and started to cross-examine me upon the amount of damage we had
+sustained. I thought that the white, shapely hand tightened its grip
+upon my wet sleeve at the moment Leith's bass voice came booming to our
+ears, and I blessed the big brute's interference for the thrill which I
+derived from the pressure of her fingers upon the greasy coat.
+
+But Leith was not to be denied. The cold stare, instead of driving him
+back into the cabin, only roused his temper. Very cautiously he climbed
+along the heaving deck to the point where we were standing, and,
+clutching a rope, he swayed backward and forward immediately behind us.
+
+"Miss Edith!" he called.
+
+The girl turned her head sharply. "Well?" she cried.
+
+"This isn't a proper place for you!" roared Leith. "One of those seas is
+liable to come aboard at any moment, and you might be washed away before
+any one could assist you."
+
+Edith Herndon's lips showed the slightest trace of a smile. "You had
+better be careful too, Mr. Leith," she retorted. "Mr. Verslun is holding
+on to me in case one of those old gray rollers should make a sudden
+leap, but you have no one to hold on to you."
+
+A frown passed over Leith's face like a cloud shadow across a yellow
+plain. He slackened his grip on the rope and lurched toward us.
+
+"You must go below at once!" he screamed, addressing the girl. "Your
+father is too ill to look after you at this moment, so the duty is mine.
+There is danger here, and I order you below!"
+
+He touched her shoulder with his big fingers that resembled talons, but
+the girl made a quick side movement and slipped from his grip.
+
+"Do not touch me!" she cried fiercely. "How dare you put your hand on
+me!"
+
+But Leith's temper was up at that moment, and he was angry enough for
+anything. He made a spring for the girl's hand, and I thrust my shoulder
+forward to bump him off. _The Waif_ nearly stood on her end at that
+instant, and her acrobatic feat combined with the push flung Leith off
+his feet and sent him rolling ludicrously along the deck.
+
+Miss Herndon gave a little cry of alarm and sprang for the
+companion-stairs, down which she disappeared without taking a glance at
+the brute on the wet planks. Leith picked himself up, gripped a loose
+backstay with his left hand and swung himself toward me, striking out
+viciously with his free right hand when he came within hitting distance.
+
+The blow landed on my shoulder, and I returned the compliment with an
+uppercut that jerked him from his swing rope and sent him stumbling
+backward against the rail. The fall stunned him for a few moments and he
+rolled about in the wash; then Soma, the Kanaka who jerked the knife at
+me, rushed from the galley door and dragged him to his feet. The native
+steered him to the companionway, where he stood for a moment glaring at
+me as if undecided whether to continue the fight or beat a retreat, but
+the wild plunging of the yacht convinced him that the spot was not one
+where he figured to advantage, so he stumbled below.
+
+I looked around and saw Holman clinging to the rigging, his boyish face
+wearing an expression of extreme pleasure.
+
+"You're getting wise," he cried, as he scrambled toward me; "but don't
+think you've walloped him. He'll come back at you when he has a better
+opportunity of beating you up."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+I MAKE A PROMISE
+
+The morning following the unpleasant incident with Leith broke clear and
+sunny. The Pacific, as if tired after its mad pranks of the preceding
+three days, was a shimmering stretch of placid blue water, and the
+shattered spars and loose cordage of _The Waif_ were the only reminders
+of the terrific storm that had swept us before it.
+
+Captain Newmarch set all hands at work to repair the damage, and before
+midday we were bowling along under as much canvas as we could spread.
+The storm being directly from the southwest had not carried us from our
+course, and Newmarch chuckled when he had taken an observation.
+
+"We'll strike it in the morning," he growled.
+
+"What? Penrose Island?" I asked.
+
+"No, the Isle of Tears," he answered sharply.
+
+"The Isle of Tears?" I repeated.
+
+"That's what I said," he remarked sourly. "And now you know as much as I
+know. It was kept a little secret by the orders of my employers, but we
+are so close to the spot now that I don't think it will matter if I let
+the cat out of the bag."
+
+"And is it there that the Professor will conduct his search?" I asked.
+
+"You had better ask that question of Professor Herndon," he replied. "I
+know nothing about what they'll do ashore."
+
+He left the poop before I had time to put another question to him, and
+as I walked up and down I turned over in my mind the tiny morsel of
+information I had received. The captain's secrecy was peculiar, to say
+the least, and as I reasoned that Professor Herndon knew absolutely
+nothing of the Islands, it was quite evident that the orders prohibiting
+Newmarch from making known the exact destination of the yacht had come
+from Leith. It was not the first time I had heard of the Isle of Tears.
+Strange stories floated across the Pacific concerning the little islet
+east of the Suvaroff Group, and out of the reticule of the mind I
+attempted to drag these stories and piece them together during the
+minutes that passed after Newmarch had given me the information. They
+were not pleasant stories as I remembered them at that moment. The
+island had a "past." The mention of it brought hazy recollections to
+natives--recollections that were too misty to put into words, but which
+the untutored mind connected with happenings that were anything but
+pleasant. And I recalled a night at "Tonga Pete's" place on the Rue de
+Rivoli at Papeete, when a sailor from a copra schooner in the bay, who
+had been marooned upon the island by Captain "Bully" Hayes, told a wild,
+weird story of unexplainable happenings that he had witnessed during the
+two days and two nights he had spent ashore.
+
+Holman came hurrying upon deck as I was endeavouring to remember all the
+story that the sailor had told, and the youngster immediately rushed me
+with the news.
+
+"The captain has just told me," I said.
+
+"Well, Leith has just given the information out in the cabin," he cried.
+"They must have decided to give it out at the same moment."
+
+"But the Professor?" I asked. "Surely he knew. Do you mean to say that
+he was ignorant of the fact that it was the Isle of Tears and not
+Penrose Island that we were making for?"
+
+Holman laughed at my question. "You haven't spoken much to him, Verslun.
+He couldn't remember the name of a place three minutes. He only knows
+that there are archaeological treasures on this island we are going to,
+and he doesn't care two cents about its name. Leith has told him some
+tall stories about the camp, judging by the way the old man's eyes shine
+when he mentions it. Yesterday he read me Leith's description of stone
+_hamungas_ and things that are supposed to have been built before Julius
+Caesar invaded Britain, and he's pop-eyed with joy as he thinks how
+he'll yank Fame by the tail when he gets on the ground and snapshots the
+affairs. Gee! I'm glad I haven't got a kink for digging up relics and
+dodging about places that went to smash thousands of years ago. A vice
+like that is more expensive than the poker habit."
+
+"Well, Newmarch says we'll strike it early in the morning," I said, "and
+then we'll see whether your suspicions are correct."
+
+"I'm infernally afraid they are," snapped the youngster. "I wouldn't
+care ten cents about the brute only that the girls are aboard. I felt
+sorry when I saw him climb to his feet yesterday. If you hit him again
+hit him with something that will crack his skull. He's a devil, Verslun,
+and before we are much older we will find it out."
+
+I laughed at his gloomy forebodings, and as Miss Barbara Herndon came on
+deck at that moment he raced away and left me to my own meditations.
+
+My thoughts were mixed. I had pleasant and unpleasant ones. If Leith
+was the scoundrel that Holman suspected, the two girls were in danger,
+and now as we neared the island where they would leave the yacht to
+accompany their father, the clutch of fear was upon me. On _The Waif_ I
+felt that I had some little power, but on land, more especially on the
+lonely island toward which we were heading, that feeling of
+protectorship which the sailorman has for his passengers would be lost.
+If Leith knew the island, and it was evident that he had visited it
+before, any villainy that he contemplated would be held in check till he
+was ashore and in command of the expedition and I would be powerless.
+
+I recognized that Holman's fears were without solid foundation. They
+were transmitted through Barbara Herndon, but I also recognized that the
+elder sister would hardly support the statements unless she had good
+grounds for her anxiety. Her woman's intuition had branded Leith's
+motives in bringing the Professor into the Islands as bad, and the
+sallow-faced giant could not erase the impression. The actual reason for
+trickery was a matter of speculation. Professor Herndon was wealthy; it
+was his money that had fitted out the expedition, but how Leith expected
+to benefit himself by treachery was more than I could tell. Still, try
+as I would to fight off the impressions that Holman's tongue had fixed
+within my mind, I was unable to alter the opinion I had formed of the
+man the moment I met him. There was an atmosphere about the yacht that
+was unexplainable. Try as I could to find legitimate grounds for fears I
+could not. The Professor was a scientist who wished to study certain
+things the whereabouts of which were known to Leith. Apparently the
+Professor was satisfied with the bargain he had made. Leith, as the two
+girls had informed Holman, had called upon their father at the Langham
+Hotel in Wynyard Square, Sydney, and, after fascinating the old man with
+his stories, had presented his credentials and made a bargain with him
+which resulted in the chartering of the yacht. His former life was a
+mystery that he guarded jealously from the probes which the girls had
+skilfully endeavoured to use. It was clear that he had spent many years
+in the Islands, but that fact is not one that is generally put forward
+as a recommendation of good character. The South Sea holds a large
+percentage of the nimble people who manage to be in another spot when
+Dame Justice throws her lariat. The Law of the Fringe has made curiosity
+a criminal offence, and a new name covers more than charity.
+
+I had had little chance of speaking to Edith Herndon since the moment I
+came aboard, but I determined, after I had looked at the matter from
+every side, that I would ask her point blank if I could be of any
+assistance. Leith's face was the only prop he put forward as a support
+to his claims of respectability, and his face betrayed him.
+
+My chance came early that evening. A big tropical moon rose out of Asia
+and spread a silvery wash upon the ocean. Professor Herndon and his
+eldest daughter were leaning over the rail, but the moment I joined them
+the old man informed us that he had to see to his scientific outfit so
+that everything would be in readiness for the landing on the following
+morning, and he hurried off and left us together.
+
+The girl did not speak for a few minutes, and I made no attempt to break
+the silence. Somehow I felt that her intuition had already told her that
+I wished to speak about the happenings of the morrow, and her opening
+remark proved that my surmise was correct.
+
+"You will stay with the yacht, I suppose?" she questioned.
+
+"I cannot say," I replied. "Captain Newmarch hasn't spoken to me about
+the matter. Does your father intend to go far inland?"
+
+"Father has just told me that the actual distance is not great, but the
+travelling is very hard. It seems that it is only a few miles to the
+spot where Mr. Leith says that father can see all the sights and obtain
+all the specimens he desires, but those few miles will take us four days
+to travel. There are all kinds of obstacles in the way."
+
+"And you are not afraid?" I stammered. "You do not dislike the idea of
+going?"
+
+She lifted her head and looked me in the face, the big amber eyes
+shining softly in the moonlight.
+
+"I dread it," she said quietly. "It is foolish to say so, but--"
+
+She stopped speaking and turned her face away from me. In the little
+silence that followed I heard the _plop plop_ of the waves against the
+side of the yacht. A native chanted a Samoan love song in the fo'c'stle,
+but that and the soft whine of the pulleys were the only sounds that
+disturbed the night. We seemed such a long way from civilization at that
+minute, and a great pity for the girl's plight gave me sufficient
+courage to make a proffer of my services.
+
+"Miss Herndon," I spluttered, "if I could do anything to help you,
+please tell me. I might help you if you wish. Tell me what you think is
+best."
+
+"If you stay with the yacht you can do nothing," she murmured.
+
+"Then you want me to go?" I cried. "You would like me to go with----"
+
+"Father and Barbara and me," she said softly. "Mr. Holman is coming,
+and if you could come too--"
+
+"I can!" I cried. "I will go with the party if you say so."
+
+"But if Captain Newmarch orders you to stay with the yacht?"
+
+"He can order away," I spluttered. "I am going where Leith is going,
+that is as long as Leith accompanies you and your father."
+
+Something moved on the top of the galley as I put my resolution into
+words, and I sprang up quickly. The moon made every inch of the yacht as
+bright as day, yet I was not quick enough in my rush. A tin pan, knocked
+down by the eavesdropper, rolled across the deck, but the spy had fled.
+
+"Some one was listening to us," I explained as I returned to the girl's
+side.
+
+"I am sorry then that I asked you to accompany us," she murmured. "I am
+dragging you into our troubles, Mr. Verslun, and it is not right."
+
+"Hush!" I cried. "Your troubles are mine just because you are a woman
+out on the very fringe of the earth where you can get no one else to
+help you bear them. You see I can claim a right in this spot. This is
+the jumping off place of the world down here, and an offer of assistance
+must not be refused."
+
+She stood in front of me, a tall, splendid figure, the moonlight
+silvering the piled masses of hair and giving one the impression that
+her head was surrounded by a shining halo. Suddenly she put out her hand
+and took mine.
+
+"I accept your offer gladly," she said softly. "You are very, very kind,
+Mr. Verslun. It may be, as you say, the jumping off place of the world
+down here at the very outposts of civilization, but the power that
+protects one in the crowded cities is surely here as well. Good-night,
+friend."
+
+It was an hour after the time when Miss Herndon went below that I asked
+the captain's permission to go along with the expedition. He plucked his
+scrawny beard with a nervous hand as he stood staring at me.
+
+"What the devil do you want to go for?" he asked.
+
+"For the fun of the thing."
+
+"I don't know," he muttered. "I'll see Leith."
+
+He turned away and I walked for'ard. The beauty of the night was
+extraordinary. The yacht seemed to be veneered with a soft luminous
+paint that gave us the appearance of a ghostly ship skimming over a
+ghostly ocean.
+
+At the top of the fo'c'stle ladder I found a native stretched full
+length and sobbing mightily. He walloped his head against the planks
+when I endeavoured to get him upon his feet, and the sobs shook his
+frame.
+
+"What's the matter?" I asked.
+
+"Toni! Toni! Toni!" he wailed. "Toni he gone. Toni, my brother, all same
+come from Suva, now him dead."
+
+"I'm sorry, but it can't be helped," I said. "He should have been more
+careful."
+
+The native lifted himself from the deck and glanced around fearfully.
+Satisfied that there were no listeners he dried his eyes and crawled
+upon his knees to the spot where I was standing. "He not washed
+overboard," he whispered. "Soma stick one knife in him, then he tip him
+over. Me see him, very much afraid."
+
+"When?" I asked.
+
+"Night afore last," he gasped. "Captain see him do it. Very bad thing.
+Toni, my brother, all same work one time Suva."
+
+Holman joined me when I relieved the captain late in the night; I told
+the youngster what I knew about the disappearance of Toni.
+
+"Who knifed him?" he asked.
+
+"The big Kanaka who pulled Leith out of the scuppers when he fell
+yesterday."
+
+"Holy smoke!" cried the boy. "I'd like to get the strength of things on
+board this boat. Why, that big nigger is going to be the guide of the
+expedition on shore."
+
+"Who says so?"
+
+"Leith pointed him out to the Professor this afternoon," answered
+Holman. "I was talking to the old scientist at the time."
+
+I whistled softly. If Soma was a henchman of Leith's it was clear to me
+why the captain had shielded him the night he jerked the knife at me
+when I dropped the pin upon his woolly head, but why Toni had been put
+away was a mystery.
+
+"Is it any good of attempting to convince the Professor?" I asked.
+
+"Not a bit," snapped Holman. "The girls have been imploring him to turn
+back this last three days while we were stuck in the cabin, but he won't
+listen to them. He's a maniac, that's what he is. He doesn't know what
+those two women are suffering through his darned foolishness, and if he
+did know it wouldn't trouble him. If you want the real extract of
+selfishness you must make a puncture in a scientific guy with a hobby,
+and you can get as much as you want."
+
+"Well, I'm going along to see what happens," I said. "If Leith refuses
+to accept me I'm going just the same."
+
+Holman gripped my hand--gripped it fiercely, then he left me hurriedly.
+
+I tramped backward and forward as _The Waif_ sailed steadily through the
+waves of glittering mercury. A few days before, when I was an occupant
+of "The Rathole" in Levuka, life seemed to be empty and cold, but a
+wonderful change had come in those few days. Although I had not spoken
+to Edith Herndon more than half a dozen times, it appeared to me that it
+was those few short conversations that had chased the loneliness and
+morbid thoughts from my mind. Her very presence stimulated me in a
+manner that I could not express, and as I stared out across the
+moon-whitened ocean I started nervously at the thought which had sprung
+suddenly into my brain. It was an insane thought, and I tried to laugh
+it away. Edith Herndon was as far above me as the moon was above the
+waves that were silvered by her beams. I pictured myself lying like a
+beachcomber upon the pile of pearl shell when the strange chant of the
+Maori and the dead Toni concerning "the way to heaven out of Black
+Fernando's hell" had come to my ears, and I blessed the new influence
+which had come into my life.
+
+"My way to heaven lies in this direction," I soliloquized, and the
+quivering yacht went bounding on as I allowed wild dreams to race
+unchecked through my brain.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE ISLE OF TEARS
+
+A sleepy Samoan in the main cross-trees screamed a message to the deck
+while the pink flush of the tropical dawn was still in the sky, and _The
+Waif_ plunged through the water toward the island. One after the other
+the members of the expedition came on deck. Leith stumbled up when
+Newmarch shouted down the information, and the big brute watched the
+tiny spot that came gradually nearer; the Professor danced up like an
+adventurous boy, and he gurgled ecstatically as he peeped over the rail;
+while the two girls came up arm in arm and looked in silence across the
+dawn-reddened waters. Holman's gaze travelled from the island to Leith
+and back again to the island as if he was trying to trace a criminal
+connection between the two.
+
+As the yacht drew closer a strange silence seemed to fall upon the
+vessel. The Professor's gurgles of joy died away slowly, and none of the
+others seemed inclined to break the stillness. The crew and the half
+dozen islanders that Leith had brought to carry provisions and specimens
+were also silent. They were grouped for'ard, but not a murmur came from
+them as _The Waif_ crept slowly ahead, feeling her way cautiously into
+the little bay on the north side of the island which Leith had suggested
+to Newmarch as a good anchorage.
+
+The peculiar stories that had gone abroad concerning the Isle of Tears
+were responsible for most of the wide-eyed looks of wonder which the
+imaginative Polynesians directed upon the shore; the strange predicament
+in which they were placed tied the tongues of the two girls; the
+Professor was thinking of the archaeological treasures, while thoughts
+that one could only guess at prevented Leith and Holman from speaking.
+
+The island had a strange, wild beauty that seemed to throttle speech.
+The underlying coral reefs were of colours that ran from pure white to
+gorgeous crimson, and the effect upon the water above them was wonderful
+to behold. _The Waif_ seemed to make her way over a floor of beautiful
+parquetry which Mother Nature had been constructing for centuries.
+Chameleon-tinted seaweeds stretched upward, waving backward and forward
+like the hair of sea nymphs hidden in the crevices of the multi-coloured
+rocks.
+
+The vegetation on the shore was weird and wondrous. The trees
+immediately near the edge of the bay were covered with riotous lianas
+that looped themselves like pythons from limb to limb, and from whose
+green masses blazing red flowers appeared at intervals like watchful
+eyes. Scarlet hibiscus and perfumed frangipanni were everywhere, while
+climbing jasmine tried to cover up the black basalt rocks in the
+foreground as if to hide everything that was ugly from the eyes of the
+visitor. The sweet, intoxicating odours came out to us in greeting, yet
+the place seemed to inspire us with a feeling of awe and mystery that
+became more oppressive as the yacht moved lazily across the bay.
+
+I glanced at Edith Herndon at the moment the anchor plunged down into
+the bed of coral, and the look of perplexed wonder upon her face
+startled me.
+
+"It looks a nice place, yet it feels an awful spot," she murmured. "All
+those snaky creepers with their coloured flowers seem to be hiding
+something."
+
+I understood her feelings regarding the place. That look of weird
+expectancy, common to places that are cloaked with a tremendous silence,
+had gripped the two girls, and the yacht seemed homelike when they
+compared it to the shore.
+
+"Oh, Edith," cried the younger sister, "I wish father wouldn't go!"
+
+"So do I, dear," murmured the elder girl, "but it is useless to attempt
+to persuade him to give up the quest."
+
+"But I hate the place!" cried Miss Barbara. "Don't you?"
+
+"Oh, no," stammered Edith, bravely attempting to cheer the spirits of
+the younger girl. "You will not be lonely, Barbara. Mr. Holman and
+father and I will be with you, and perhaps Mr. Verslun will be in our
+company."
+
+Newmarch approached at the instant and squeaked out an answer to the
+request I had made the previous evening.
+
+"I asked Mr. Leith if you could go with him," he said, "but he doesn't
+think you would be of any use. He has all the help he requires, so you
+had better stay on the yacht."
+
+There was a slight grin on his thin face as he imparted the information,
+and his merriment tickled me. I had made up my mind without waiting for
+Leith's decision, and I was more pleased than annoyed at knowing that my
+presence was not desired with the party that went inland.
+
+The anchor had hardly touched the bottom before Leith started to
+transship the provisions that were required for the trip across the
+island. The sight of land seemed to stir the sallow-faced giant out of
+the lethargy that had gripped him on the way down from Levuka. He
+suddenly discovered that the mantle of authority was upon his shoulders,
+and he bullied the island boys as they lowered the stores.
+
+Holman was right when he stated that Soma was the man that Leith had
+picked as first assistant. The big Kanaka was placed in charge of the
+other five carriers, and he immediately imitated Leith by shrieking out
+orders and strutting about in a manner that was ludicrous. Professor
+Herndon was bubbling over with excitement. The stories which Leith had
+fed to him continuously concerning the remains of an extinct
+civilization had worked him up to a pitch that bordered on insanity, and
+it was pitiful to watch him as he made endless notes in the bulky
+notebook.
+
+"I shall be known throughout the world inside three months," he
+whispered to Leith.
+
+"In less than that," drawled the giant.
+
+"Yes, you're right!" snapped the dream-fed scientist. "If everything is
+as you say our task will be an easy one. Are you ready Edith? Barbara,
+come along!"
+
+He climbed down the ladder with a haste that was nearly his undoing, as
+he let go his grip before the boat was directly beneath him. Holman
+saved him from a ducking, but his solar topee, which had a distinctly
+scientific look, was soaked in salt water before it could be rescued.
+
+Captain Newmarch stood by with a look of unconcern upon his thin face as
+the two girls went over the side, and he gave an unintelligible grunt as
+Leith followed. Within two hours after _The Waif_ had cast anchor the
+two boats containing the stores and the ill-assorted explorers were
+making for a small promontory that stretched out like a green tongue
+into the sparkling waters of the bay.
+
+Once on shore, Leith put Soma and the carriers in the lead, Holman and
+the two girls next, with himself and the Professor bringing up the rear,
+and in that order they moved across the little strip of white sand that
+glittered like diamond dust. The heavy green foliage came out to meet
+them, dropped over them like a veil, and left us staring at the riotous
+creeper masses with the brilliant flower eyes that appeared to be
+watching _The Waif_.
+
+Newmarch gave a peculiar chuckle as he turned toward me when the party
+had disappeared.
+
+"Now, Mr. Verslun," he cried, "we have plenty work to keep us busy for
+the week or so we will be here. Get about it the moment the boats
+return, and keep the men on the jump."
+
+I nodded, and he went below without another word, leaving me still
+staring at the spot where the explorers had dived into the leafy wall.
+The strange loneliness of the place seemed to clutch me hard at that
+moment, and I mentally abused myself for not making a stronger protest
+against the whole affair. But I knew as I damned my own inactivity that
+protest would have been useless as far as the Professor was concerned,
+and the filial affection of the two girls would not allow the old
+ancient to wander off alone.
+
+I had planned to allow the party a few hours' start before I made any
+attempt to follow, feeling certain that I would be able to find the
+track, and, moreover, I wished to catch up to the expedition at a point
+where Leith would have no chance of verifying the story I would tell to
+account for my presence. The big brute would probably think I was lying
+when I told him that Newmarch had sent me after him, but the Professor's
+desire to push on would probably prevent him from making an effort to
+check my story by sending a runner back to the boat. And luck was with
+me at that moment. As I racked my brain in the construction of a
+suitable excuse to account for my appearance, my eyes fell upon the
+Professor's camera that had been overlooked in the hurry of departure,
+and I sprang upon it joyfully and hid it till the time had elapsed.
+Knowing the importance which the old scientist attached to the
+photographs which he intended to take, I knew that he, at least, would
+reason that the captain had acted wisely in sending me in pursuit with
+the instrument, and I trusted that his gratitude would move him to get
+Leith's permission to allow me to remain with the expedition.
+
+The party had been gone some six hours when I slipped over the side into
+the dory. Newmarch was below, and only one of the crew was on deck. I
+seized the oars and struck out for the shore, but I had hardly covered
+twenty paces when the captain rushed to the rail, took one glance at me,
+and then dashed toward the companion-stairs.
+
+I sensed the motive in that mad dash for the cabin, and I pulled madly.
+Thoughts of Edith Herndon thronged my brain, and I drove the dory toward
+the promontory with every ounce of strength I possessed. To return to
+the yacht while she was in the eerie jungle-growth under Leith's
+protection would be worse than death, and I didn't pause for an instant
+when the captain's squeaky voice hailed me.
+
+"Come back at once!" he shouted. "Are you coming?"
+
+I bent my back to the oars and pulled with every muscle strained. The
+perspiration half blinded me, but one glance upward convinced me that I
+had sensed the captain's motive when I saw him rush from the side. He
+was standing on the poop, taking deliberate aim at me with a Winchester
+rifle that he had taken from the rack in his own cabin.
+
+It seemed an age before he fired. The bullet missed the side of the boat
+by about three inches, and I shrieked my defiance. The devil had my
+nerves on edge, but the green tongue of land was close, and I pulled as
+never man pulled before.
+
+A bullet lodged in the stern of the boat, another splintered the end of
+an oar, and then the rifleman's nerves must have got the better of him.
+The succeeding shots fell wide, and I whooped like a madman as I drove
+the boat on to the green tongue of land. Springing out hastily I made a
+dash across the white strip of sand, and dived into the moist creeper
+growth.
+
+I lay there panting, watching the yacht to see what Newmarch would do.
+It was impossible for him to leave the yacht to follow me, but I guessed
+that he would make an attempt to communicate with Leith. And I guessed
+rightly.
+
+I had not been five minutes in the bushes when a boat put off for the
+shore. It contained three of the crew, two Tannese and the Fijian that I
+had found mourning the death of Toni, his "all same brother who had
+worked with him at Suva." They pulled for the spot where I had left the
+dory, and here the Fijian sprang out, while the others proceeded to tow
+the dory back to _The Waif_. I surmised that Toni's "all same brother"
+had been sent to carry a message to Leith, and I lay in the bushes
+waiting as he raced toward me.
+
+Cautiously he clawed his way through the undergrowth, and when he was
+certain that the creepers had completely veiled him from the eyes of
+watchers on the yacht he picked up a small flat stone from the ground,
+drew a yachting knife from his belt and crouching on his heels started
+to sharpen the blade. As he rubbed industriously he sang a weird tune in
+his native tongue, rounding off each verse with five words in English
+that explained his industry. The words were: "Now I'll kill you, Soma,"
+and the chant was a poem of consolation to the spirit of the dead Toni,
+assuring it that the hour of vengeance was at hand, and that Soma would
+go to the great unknown the moment he got within reach of the yachting
+knife.
+
+I poked my head from my hiding place, and the Fijian turned quickly.
+
+"I think the captain told Soma to kill your brother," I said softly. "If
+the captain didn't tell him, Leith did, Kaipi."
+
+Kaipi stopped sharpening the blade and fixed his big eyes upon me. "I
+not to speak to you," he said. "Kapitani tell me not to. I go catch up
+Leith, give him one piece of paper the Kapitani gave me."
+
+"But Soma?" I asked.
+
+"I kill Soma when chance comes," muttered Kaipi.
+
+"Well, we're of the same mind, Kaipi," I said pleasantly. "Soma is no
+friend of mine and I'll help you as much as I can if you turn over the
+note which the captain gave you and do just what I tell you. Otherwise,
+Kaipi, I have a revolver, and a knife is no match for a revolver."
+
+The Fijian considered the matter for a few moments, his dreamy eyes
+watching me the while. At that moment duty was forgotten in the thirst
+for vengeance upon Soma, and the debate with his conscience was of short
+duration. He pulled a note from the folds of his pareo and tossed it to
+me with a short laugh.
+
+"Me not care about that," he grinned. "Me catch Soma, that's all."
+
+The note was exceedingly brief. It read:
+
+  "The mate is following you,--NEWMARCH."
+
+Kaipi had returned to the job of sharpening his knife in which I had
+interrupted him, and at intervals he assured the dead Toni that
+vengeance was only a matter of a few hours. As far as I was concerned
+the captain could not have chosen a better messenger.
+
+"Kaipi," I said, tearing the note into small pieces, "you have been
+sent to help me find Leith and the Professor. See, I have the
+Professor's picture maker. He forgot it this morning, and the captain
+sent you and me to take it to him. Do you understand?"
+
+The Fijian grinned, tried the edge of his knife blade with the ball of
+his thumb, then sprang to his feet.
+
+"And don't be in too great a hurry to fix Soma," I cautioned. "Toni's
+spirit can wait a few days till you get a suitable opportunity. Now,
+we'll strike the trail."
+
+Kaipi grinned again, put his sharpened knife into his belt and plunged
+into the dense undergrowth. The snaky, moist lianas made progress next
+to impossible. They clung around our legs like live things, and I damned
+the Professor's idiotic craving for notoriety as we waded through the
+clammy creepers in search of the trail made by the party. The prickly
+rope-like vines seemed to be in league with the devil who was leading
+the aged scientist and his daughters into dangers that made my brain
+dizzy as I attempted to dissect the possibilities which imagination put
+forward.
+
+At last we found the traces of Soma's handiwork with an axe, and guided
+by these signs we hurried forward. The ground rose gradually toward the
+centre of the island, where columns of basalt loomed like the towers of
+feudal castles against the pure Venetian blue of the tropical sky. But
+the sky was visible only for moments that were far removed from each
+other. The crawling vines that overran the trees made an impenetrable
+barrier against the sunlight, and most of the time we were stumbling
+along in a mysterious twilight that increased my nervous agony. Masses
+of rock of volcanic origin were thickly strewn around, and anything like
+fast travelling was impossible.
+
+The sun dropped slowly toward the west, and we had great difficulty in
+holding to the path. The axe marks and the branches broken by the
+carriers were really the only signs that we had to go by, but the eyes
+of the Fijian were exceedingly sharp in detecting the slightest evidence
+left by the party. We passed the spot where they had lunched, and
+increased our speed in an endeavour to overtake them before nightfall.
+The silence and unexplainable mystery of the place made me anxious to
+catch up with them before the darkness came down, while hunger and
+revenge made Kaipi move at a speed that was most unusual.
+
+Darkness came down like a suffocating blanket, and we halted.
+
+"No go farther," muttered Kaipi. "Better make fire and sleep. Catch um
+to-morrow."
+
+I sat down while the Fijian gathered a pile of rotten wood, but before
+he could set fire to the heap I was on my feet clawing my way into the
+darkness in front. From somewhere out of the inky night came the voice
+of Edith Herndon lifted up in a little Italian melody that I had heard
+her singing the night we left Levuka. It seemed to me that she suspected
+my near presence, and that she was singing to guide me to the spot where
+the party had camped.
+
+Five minutes afterward Kaipi and I stumbled into the circle of light
+round the fire, and Leith sprang to his feet with a growl of rage.
+
+"What's this?" he cried. "Who the devil gave you permission to come
+here?"
+
+"The captain sent me," I replied, looking straight at the giant as I
+fired the lie at him. "The carriers forgot Professor Herndon's camera,
+and Captain Newmarch sent Kaipi and me after you."
+
+Leith's mutterings were drowned by the scientist's cries of joy as he
+took the camera from my hand, and the big brute had time to recover
+himself before the Professor had stopped chattering. I guessed that he
+reasoned that it would be bad policy to show that he was angry at my
+arrival, while the camera partly convinced him that I had told the
+truth. His surprise and the Professor's evident pleasure made me think
+it an opportune moment to put forward a request to stay with the party,
+and I put my wish into words.
+
+"Captain Newmarch said that Kaipi and I might go along if you and
+Professor Herndon had no objections," I lied. "He thought we would prove
+useful."
+
+Leith scowled angrily, but the Professor gave an immediate assent to the
+request. His short-sightedness prevented him from noticing the frown
+which passed over the face of his partner, but the sour look fled
+immediately the two girls expressed a desire to keep me in the party.
+
+"Oh, please let Mr. Verslun come," cried Miss Barbara. "It will make it
+ever so much more pleasant."
+
+"I was thinking of the stock of food," growled Leith, as if attempting
+to explain his evident displeasure.
+
+"I'll go on half measure and let Mr. Verslun have the other half,"
+laughed Holman.
+
+"And he can have some of mine," cried Miss Barbara.
+
+"And mine," murmured Edith.
+
+Leith grinned as he noted the feeling of the party. It would not be
+diplomatic to go against the wishes of all, and he knew it. With a wave
+of his hand he ordered Kaipi to the fire where Soma and the other five
+islanders were sitting, and nodded his head as an intimation that I
+could stay.
+
+"By the way," he growled, as I fell upon the plate of tinned salmon
+which Edith Herndon handed to me, "who was doing the shooting this
+afternoon?"
+
+"I was," I replied. "I fired my revolver half a dozen times when we got
+off the trail and couldn't find our way back to it. I thought on account
+of the way that the path wound in and out that your party might be near
+the spot where we were bushed."
+
+He made no further comment and I breathed a sigh of relief. Unless
+Newmarch sent a second messenger to make sure that the news of my
+desertion would reach Leith, I felt that I was safe.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PIT
+
+We were under way early on the morning after I joined the party. Leith
+had the camp astir by daybreak, and after a hasty breakfast we trailed
+off behind Soma and the carriers, heading directly toward the basalt
+towers that rose up in the middle of the island.
+
+I for one was not sorry that we were making an early start. All through
+the night I lay awake expecting another member of the crew to rush into
+camp with a message from Newmarch to Leith, and when we started on the
+trail, I took particular care to lag behind the procession for the first
+few hours so that I would be in a position to intercept any diligent
+runner from _The Waif_. I took the first opportunity of telling Holman
+of the manner in which the bilious Englishman had hastened my departure
+with the Winchester, and the youngster's face wore a perplexed
+expression.
+
+"That precious captain is Leith's partner in villainy," he cried, "but
+our hands are tied. The Professor is simply crazy with delight over the
+things that the brute is going to guide him to, and all our suspicions
+don't amount to much when you put them together. You see we've got
+nothing definite to go on at present. All we can do is to watch and
+wait, and be ready to act when the moment comes. Soma and his five mates
+are Leith's pets, you can bet your life on that, but we have one ally in
+your friend Kaipi."
+
+The path of the preceding day was smooth compared to the ground we
+climbed over that morning. There was no trail as far as we could see.
+Soma, who was in the lead, found his way by occasional marks that could
+only be visible to the eye of a native. Barbara Herndon remarked on one
+occasion that there was danger of our getting lost, but Leith grinned at
+the remark.
+
+"Soma has been here more than once," he replied. "What he doesn't know
+about this place isn't worth knowing."
+
+The path continued to ascend, but the thick tropical growth did not
+lessen during the tramp of the morning. Leith walked with the
+Professor, who appeared to be in a state of joy bordering upon hysteria,
+while Holman and I in the rear tried to assist the two girls over the
+roughest sections of the road. I thought as we scrambled through
+impenetrable scrub and crawled over rocky piles that it was the
+strangest expedition that had ever set forth. If Leith was the wicked
+devil that we suspected him to be, four persons were risking their lives
+to gratify the whim of a half-crazy scientist who was dying for
+notoriety. He would not be turned aside from his pursuit of the
+specimens which Leith had told him of; his daughters would not desert
+him, and their resolve had brought Holman and myself. We were blind
+automatons that the fame-seeking archaeologist was dragging at his heels.
+He did not consider the sufferings of the two girls; least of all did he
+think that Holman or myself was doing anything to safeguard his life or
+property. He was blind to everything but the natural curiosities around
+him, and he made frequent entries in the notebook that was to be his
+crutch to Olympus.
+
+Leith did not allow me to remain long in the rear. He called me up to
+the front, and very politely asked me to help in hustling along the
+carriers who were inclined to dawdle as the way grew rougher, and,
+although I would much rather have had the task of helping the two
+girls, I had to accept the position without demur. Leith was in charge,
+and Holman and I were only intruders who had on standing, and whose food
+was paid for by the Professor.
+
+We halted at midday in an ugly-looking spot far up the shoulder of the
+mountain that we were climbing, and through a break in the trees we
+caught a glimpse of the Pacific. The ocean seemed directly beneath us,
+and yet, as Edith Herndon expressed it, we seemed to be a thousand
+leagues away from it.
+
+[Illustration: "We halted at midday in an ugly-looking spot far up
+the shoulder of the mountain."]
+
+"This horrible silence makes me long for the clean sound of the waves,"
+she whispered, as I rolled a stone over to make her a seat. "This
+stillness stops one from speaking. Do you know that Barbara and I
+haven't spoken a word during the last hour? We simply hadn't the courage
+to make the effort."
+
+Under the watchful eye of Leith I endeavoured to cheer her up, while
+inwardly I cursed the prattling old Professor who chattered of the
+honours he expected as the rewards of his discoveries. The affair was
+enough to bring tears to the eyes of a man with a heart of stone.
+
+"I'm just thinking we should have stopped this business before it got
+this far," muttered Holman, as he reached closer to get a light for his
+cigarette.
+
+"What should we have done?" I asked.
+
+"I don't know," he growled. "We should have done something though. Pity
+we didn't lose Leith overboard with your friend Toni."
+
+"What's wrong now? Has anything happened?"
+
+"No, nothing has happened," he replied. "I wish something would. This
+silence is beginning to put my nerves on edge, but I'm afraid to yell
+out for fear that I might wake something that has been dead for
+centuries. Does it strike you that way?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Well, it's the same with the girls," muttered Holman. "The stillness of
+the place has brought their ordinary conversational tone down to a
+whisper."
+
+Leith lurched across and interrupted our conversation. "Get the boys
+going, Mr. Verslun," he said. "We want to cross the Vermilion Pit while
+the light is good, and it is hard going from here on."
+
+We started forward up the boulder-strewn slope, and with each step the
+difficulties of the ascent became greater. I took an axe and helped Soma
+chop a path which would make it easier for the two sisters, but no
+matter what amount of trouble we took, they found it a difficult matter
+to follow. Once, goaded into fury by Leith's attempts to hurry the girls
+when Holman was assisting them over a particularly rough stretch, I
+turned upon the old scientist who was puffing along with the natives in
+the lead.
+
+The half-insane ancient heard my outburst to the end, staring at me
+through the thick lenses of his glasses as if I was some new kind of a
+bug whose appearance he wished to implant firmly within his mind.
+
+"Science calls for sacrifices," he squeaked. "If my daughters are
+heroines who wish to share my hardships in the pursuit of information
+that will be of great benefit to the world, I fail to see what it has to
+do with you, sir!"
+
+"But they have no interest in your silly discoveries," I cried. "They
+are doing this infernal tramp to look after you. Do you hear?"
+
+"Confound you, sir!" he screamed. "Mind your own business and don't
+interfere with mine!"
+
+I choked down my wrath as Leith came crashing through from the rear, and
+the old egoist, flushed and ruffled, dropped back to meet him, evidently
+convinced of my insanity through my inability to appreciate his efforts
+to prove that the skulls of long-dead Polynesians possessed peculiar
+formations they were foreign to the islanders of the present day.
+
+It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when we began to draw near
+the Vermilion Pit which Leith had mentioned when he had urged haste at
+the midday luncheon. The surroundings became more strange and mysterious
+with each step we took. The basalt peaks that we had noticed from the
+deck of _The Waif_ were now quite close to us, and they seemed to move
+in upon us from both sides. The trees and lianas became less numerous,
+and the black rocks came toward us in a sinister manner that conjured up
+thoughts of a dead something toward which the encircling ridges were
+guiding us like the arms of a corral. The place was fear-inspiring. It
+had the unearthly appearance that made the imaginative minds of the
+ancients people the silent woods with devils and dryads. The soft
+moaning of the Pacific was barred out by the leafy barriers, and we
+walked in a silence that was tremendous. The ticking of our watches
+sounded to our strained ears like the blows of a hammer, and once, when
+the Professor sneezed mightily, Miss Barbara gave a scream of fear
+before she realized what had caused the noise.
+
+The ascent became still more difficult. The natives puffed under their
+loads, and Holman rushed angrily to the front and demanded a halt on
+behalf of the girls struggling in the rear. During the few minutes that
+Leith grudgingly allowed them in which to recover their breath, the
+youngster hurried up to the spot where I was busy fixing the loads of
+the natives, and in a nervous whisper he asked my opinion of the route.
+
+"Where the dickens are we going?" he cried.
+
+"This is the most eerie-looking patch of country that I have ever seen
+in my life."
+
+"Leith said that we had to reach the Vermilion Pit before the sun went
+down," I replied. "I guess it is somewhere at the end of this staircase
+that we are trying to climb."
+
+"Oh, Gee!" cried the boy. "Say, this game has got those two girls scared
+to death. There's something wrong with the place, Verslun. My skin feels
+it. The island looks as if it has been left too long by itself, and I'm
+beginning to think that all those rocks and trees are watching us and
+wondering what we want here."
+
+That was how it felt to me from the moment I had left _The Waif_, and I
+had tried vainly to overcome the feeling. The island seemed to resent
+the appearance of human beings. It possessed a personality through being
+too long by itself. It had wrapped itself round a dead past, and we were
+filled with the awe which suddenly strikes the unimaginative globe
+trotter who wanders into the cool recesses of a Hindu temple. And I was
+of the same opinion as Holman regarding the trees and rocks. Traders in
+the lonely spots of the Pacific have gone insane through becoming
+convinced that the mountains and the trees were watching their
+movements, and the trees and rocks upon the Isle of Tears struck me as
+possessing a watchfulness that smacked of the supernatural. I thought
+of the story which the sailor told in the café chantant at Papeete just
+then, and I was inclined to give it more credence than I had at the
+moment he narrated it.
+
+But I tried to rally Holman so that he would cheer up Edith Herndon and
+her sister.
+
+"You're like an old woman," I growled. "Go back to the girls and make
+them laugh over some funny stories instead of getting nightmares about
+the scenery. Why, this place reminds me of a real pretty bit of scenery
+near my home town in Maine."
+
+Of course I lied when I said that. You couldn't find any scenery like
+that outside the tropics. That place was queer; there wasn't the
+slightest doubt about that. I recalled as I stumbled along how a trader
+at Metalanim in the Caroline Islands had swam out to our schooner when
+we were down there the previous year, and how the poor devil had told
+old Hergoff, the captain, that a chatak tree at the back of his hut had
+begun to make faces at him, and I began to understand the complaint that
+had gripped that trader as I climbed along by the side of the puffing
+islanders. He had been jammed up too close against a personality. When a
+place has been too long by itself, as Holman had remarked, it cultivates
+a strength that tries the nerves of an explorer, more especially if it
+is situated near the equator. Places like Papua, the Caroline Islands,
+parts of Borneo, and the Never Never country in inland Australia seem
+to possess a fist that attempts to push you off when you endeavour to
+bring the atmosphere of civilization into a silence that has been
+unbroken for centuries.
+
+Holman went back to the sisters, and we moved slowly forward. The basalt
+rocks came closer, showing plainly through the breaks in the lianas that
+grew less thickly on the higher slopes. The creepers fell away slowly,
+as if they had done the work they were required to do, and before we
+realized it we were walking between two natural walls of rock about
+eighteen feet high, above which the sky looked like a strip of blue
+paper that rested upon the marvellously even tops of the barriers.
+
+The Professor was gurgling joyfully as we tramped through that miniature
+cañon. He was bumping up against new wonders at every footstep, and he
+stumbled continuously as he endeavoured to jot down his impressions in
+the fat notebook. The Professor felt nothing mysterious about the place.
+He had the bullet-proof skin of your cold analyst who yearns eternally
+for facts.
+
+"Wonderful geological formation!" he chattered. "My friend Professor
+Hanlaw of Oakland would enjoy a glimpse of this spot. A geologist could
+spend a lifetime here."
+
+Leith's sallow face was disturbed by a grin as he listened to the old
+science-crazed ancient disbursing information regarding the formation of
+the rock. It troubled me little at that moment whether feldspar and
+augite were the two largest components, and I knew that Holman and the
+two girls were not interested. We knew that the place was ugly and
+sinister, but feldspar and augite didn't give it that look.
+
+The height of the walls increased as we advanced. We were in a narrow
+roadway scarcely more than twelve feet across, while on each side rose
+the nearly perpendicular rocks that blocked our view of the country
+immediately beyond. The ground beneath our feet was covered with small
+bits of lava from the crevices of which the moist flabby leaves of the
+nupu plant stuck up like fat green fingers.
+
+As we stared ahead we noted that the road seemed to dip suddenly as if
+the highest point of the island was reached at that spot, and the
+prospects of a walk upon a down grade were cheering after the stiff
+climbs. As we neared the place, Soma, who was walking about ten paces in
+front of the carriers, slackened speed, and the islanders dropped back
+till Leith and the Professor led the procession.
+
+Leith halted and beckoned to the two girls and Holman, who were some
+distance in the rear. "Hurry up!" he cried. "You'll get the sight of
+your lives in a few moments."
+
+"What is it?" gurgled the Professor.
+
+Leith grinned as the scientist dipped his lead pencil into his open
+mouth so that he would be able to dab down first impressions the moment
+he turned his thick lenses upon the wonders.
+
+"You'll see in a moment," replied the big brute, as he walked slowly
+forward, and just as he spoke, we did see.
+
+A ridge of bright vermilion came up suddenly about one hundred feet from
+the point where the road seemed to dip, and we walked forward wondering
+what lay between the spot where the track ended and the bright barrier
+of rock that appeared to rise higher as we approached the end of the
+trail. We seemed to sense the approach of something that chilled and yet
+attracted. The place possessed a devilish fascination. It seemed to
+repel with its very uncanniness, and yet I was aware that I was
+imitating Holman in thrusting forward my head in an endeavour to see
+what filled the space that was hidden from our eyes.
+
+The desire was soon satisfied. Fifteen paces brought us to a point that
+left the strange curiosity naked to our eyes. The vermilion walls,
+thirty yards in front of us, formed part of the sides of an enormous
+circular crater, and we stood spellbound as we pulled up within a few
+feet of the ledge and looked into the fearsome depths beneath.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," drawled Leith, looking around at us with the
+air of a cheap showman springing a novelty upon a gaping mob, "you are
+on the edge of the Vermilion Pit, the greatest wonder between Penang and
+the Paumotus."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LEDGE OF DEATH
+
+I suppose that Leith was not far wrong when he gave that place the
+credit of being the most wonderful spot in Polynesia. None of us felt
+inclined to contradict him as we stood near the lip of the crater and
+gazed into it. The thing appalled us. It looked as if some fiend had
+bored it between those barriers of black rock as a trap for man and
+beast. The entire inner walls, probably from the action of intense heat
+upon a peculiar kind of rock, were of a bright vermilion near the top,
+gradually changing into darker shades as the eye followed them deeper
+and deeper till the outline was lost in the depths of the mighty
+cauldron. The inky clouds, which seemed to heave like black masses of
+cotton wool far down in the abyss, left the imagination to perform
+acrobatic feats as it attempted to picture the possible depths that lay
+below. The thing was weird, terrible, fear-inspiring. It looked like a
+mighty crucible in which infernal things might have been manufactured in
+the days when the world was taking shape.
+
+The rays of the westering sun beat upon the sides directly opposite our
+point of observation, and the colours seemed to leap from the rock. It
+glowed in a manner that was indescribable. Sudden flashes came from it
+as if the vermilion mass was studded with blazing carbuncles, but the
+fascinating beauty of the part that was exposed to the rays was in
+violent contrast to the cold depths where the mind pictured a body
+falling through leagues of space.
+
+For about five minutes no one spoke. The awful suddenness with which the
+thing had appeared in our path throttled conversation. An inner self
+connected the pit with the singular feeling of depression which had
+gripped us the moment we landed upon the island, and we stood
+breathless, wondering stupidly how we had sensed the vermilion-lined
+horror into which the path led.
+
+It was the Professor who broke the silence. The momentary awe which he
+experienced when the strange freak of nature sprang up before his eyes
+was dispelled by the vanity which prompted him to air his knowledge
+concerning the cause of the vivid colours which seemed to radiate from
+the walls. He prattled upon the effect of heat upon minerals till he
+made us dizzy, and Holman broke in upon his chatter with a question that
+he fired point blank at Leith.
+
+"But what did we climb up here for?" asked the youngster. "Did we come
+for the view alone?"
+
+Leith grinned as he surveyed the questioner. "No, we didn't come for the
+view," he answered. "It happens to be on the way to our destination."
+
+Holman looked around at the basalt walls that hemmed us in on both
+sides, and then glanced at the pit in front.
+
+"But we can go no farther," he said.
+
+Leith's smile spread across his ugly flat face. "You are too young to
+know everything," he sneered.
+
+The youngster's eyes opened as he looked again at the circular pit with
+its brilliantly tinted sides. The answer perplexed him, and he waited
+anxiously for an explanation.
+
+"But how can we?" he asked.
+
+Leith stood for a moment before replying, then he moved closer to the
+edge of the crater and pointed down.
+
+"The road is directly beneath you," he remarked. "If you come closer to
+the edge you can see it." Holman glanced at me in amazement, and moved
+by the one impulse we stepped toward the ledge. The rim of the vast pit,
+at the point where Leith was standing, was composed of porphyry of a
+dark-green shade, and as we neared the edge we noticed that this had
+been worn to that peculiar velvety smoothness that one notices on the
+pillars of Indian temples, where the sweaty hands of millions of
+worshippers have helped in the polishing process through unnumbered
+centuries.
+
+Leith noticed that our glances were directed upon the peculiar polished
+portion of the rim, and his grin broadened.
+
+"You won't be the first to go over on to the track below," he drawled.
+"If I had a dollar for every man who slipped over here since the world
+began I wouldn't bother with specimens for American and European
+museums. See, the ledge is directly beneath, and it leads away to the
+right."
+
+We stretched out our necks and looked, and I tried to thrust back the
+exclamation that came to my lips. Directly beneath the polished part of
+the rim, and about four feet below it, was a ledge barely three feet
+wide, and this narrow path wound away to the right and disappeared
+through a cavernous opening in the brightly tinted walls of the crater.
+The ledge was bare and unprotected, polished to the same velvety
+smoothness as the spot on the rim near which we stood, and when one
+looked at it and then let his eyes glance over the infernal depths that
+were immediately beneath, the brain reeled with thoughts of the danger
+to which a climber would be exposed while making his way along it to the
+cavern in the wall.
+
+Holman took a great breath of air and turned savagely upon Leith.
+
+"What sort of a fool game are you up to?" he cried. "What do you mean?"
+
+Leith's lower jaw came forward menacingly. "You had better hold your
+tongue!" he roared. "If you don't I'll--I'll----"
+
+He stopped and glared at the young fellow, a murderous expression
+creeping over his sallow face. The half-voiced objection to the route
+had stirred all the sleeping devil in him, and the big stubby fingers
+crooked as if certain they would be called upon to grip Holman's throat.
+
+"You'll do what?" asked the youngster coolly.
+
+"I'll bundle you back to the yacht!" screamed the giant. "You've been
+allowed to come on this trip through the good nature of Professor
+Herndon, but you mustn't think you have any voice in the direction of
+affairs."
+
+Holman did not reply. The dangers of the path over which it was evident
+that Leith intended to take us dazed him, and he looked at me as if
+asking confirmation of his opinions.
+
+"But the young ladies?" I inquired, looking at Leith. "Do you expect
+them to go down on to that path?"
+
+"I don't expect the young ladies to do anything against their
+inclinations," he answered blandly. "They have come with the expedition
+through no urging from me. Regarding the ledge, there is absolutely no
+danger, and it is the only path by which we can reach the interior of
+the island. Soma, go over the rim and show them."
+
+Edith and Barbara Herndon, with their father, moved up closer to the
+edge as the grinning Kanaka stepped forward to obey Leith's order. He
+walked quickly to the polished porphyry slab, moved cautiously to the
+extreme rim, then, turning his back on the crater, he dropped upon his
+hands and knees and lowered himself down till only his grinning face
+appeared above the top.
+
+We crept closer and watched him walk along the ledge toward the cavern,
+apparently unaffected by thoughts of the death which a slip of his foot
+would bring upon him. Returning to the spot beneath the polished
+slipping-off place he put his muscular hands into two clefts in the slab
+above and drew himself up on to the solid earth.
+
+"No danger," he cried. "All boys go over here before they could call
+themselves men. That long, long time ago."
+
+The Professor grabbed his notebook as he heard the explanation, and he
+immediately proceeded to deluge the Kanaka with questions.
+
+"What was that?" he squeaked. "You say all the boys had to climb over
+there?"
+
+"That's so," grinned Soma. "This place make 'em test. Young boy go over
+this quick he make plenty good fighting man. Feller go over slow he no
+good."
+
+The Professor's pencil moved quicker than the pen of a court
+stenographer. The Kanaka's remark had brought him much copy, and the
+dangers of the path were forgotten as he jotted down the information.
+
+"And they went over here?" he cried, his eyes wide open as he gazed at
+the edge of the crater.
+
+"Right over here," grinned Soma. "See rock mighty slippery here. All
+boys' hands and feet do that. Polish it mighty fine."
+
+"But surely this test is not carried on at the present time?" cried the
+scientist. "When was this wonderful custom in force?"
+
+"About the time that Christopher Columbus was paddling to America,"
+replied Leith. "There are no natives on the Isle of Tears now. Soma is
+speaking of a time when these islands were inhabited."
+
+The Professor gurgled like a drowning mule. "This is a most interesting
+morsel of information," he murmured. "Hand me my camera, Barbara; I wish
+to take a snapshot of the place."
+
+The delay irritated Leith, but he kept his temper in check while the
+Professor fussed and focussed to get a good view of the spot.
+
+"The old fool should be in a padded cell," growled Holman. "He's so busy
+digesting that tale that he's not thinking of the dangers of this path.
+I'm going to speak to him aside."
+
+"I hope you have better luck than I had," I whispered. "I bullied him as
+we were climbing the slope, and I believe he complained of me to Leith.
+He sees a mental picture of himself with bay leaves on his brow, and he
+wouldn't consider the nerves of twenty daughters."
+
+I was right in my prophecy. When Holman approached the old maniac he
+ruffled up like an angry porcupine, and he screeched out his opinion
+concerning people who would not mind their own business.
+
+"You're the second person who has kindly informed me what I should do,"
+he exclaimed. "And who are you, sir? You have no standing with this
+expedition! This is a scientific exploration party, but it seems to me
+that a number of busy-bodies have pushed their way into it. I shall ask
+Mr. Leith if he cannot stop this interference!"
+
+Leith listened till the Professor had finished speaking, then he turned
+savagely upon Holman. "I've given you one chance," he roared, "and you
+don't seem to profit by it. Now I'm not going to speak again! If I have
+to tell you to keep your finger out of this pie on another occasion,
+you'll go back to the yacht, and you'll go back without provisions, do
+you understand?"
+
+The youngster was not lacking in courage, and he stood up boldly as the
+bully screamed out his threats.
+
+"I won't go back," he said quietly. "At least I won't go back alone."
+
+Leith's big fingers crooked ominously as he glared at Holman, but Edith
+Herndon prevented the conflict that was imminent.
+
+"Mr. Holman is only concerned about our safety," she cried, stepping in
+front of the youngster. "He thinks that the path is dangerous for women,
+and it is on that account he protests."
+
+Leith recovered his temper with an effort. "It is not dangerous," he
+drawled. "We will put a strong rope under the arms of each so that it
+will be impossible for an accident to happen. Soma will go first with
+one of the other boys, and they will guide every one into the opening.
+Once through there the path leads into a valley in the centre of the
+island, and the road is perfectly safe."
+
+Edith Herndon looked at her sister as Soma unwound the strong manilla
+rope which he had carried from the yacht, and they exchanged glances
+that showed clearly the terror in which they viewed the journey across
+the ledge.
+
+Leith frowned as he glanced toward the pit. The colours were fading from
+the brilliant sides as the sun sank lower, and the inky clouds that
+seemed to heave far down in its mysterious depths fought their way
+slowly upward as the invading sunbeams were driven out. It became more
+terrifying as each moment passed.
+
+Leith seemed to recognize this, and he turned upon the Professor. "If we
+don't get down in half an hour we will have to postpone it till the
+morning," he exclaimed. "I didn't look for a hitch like this. I tell you
+that there is not the slightest danger, and the young ladies will be
+just as safe upon that ledge as they are up here."
+
+The Professor turned to the two girls as he closed his camera. The mad
+hunger for notoriety evidently blinded him to the dangers which would
+have been perceptible at any other time, and Holman's remarks had not
+improved his temper.
+
+"Come, come, Edith!" he entreated. "We must get along. You hear what Mr.
+Leith says? There is no danger. A rope will be put around your waist,
+and an accident will be impossible."
+
+The younger girl took a glance at the terrifying abyss and shrank back
+to Edith's side.
+
+"Wait till the morning," she whispered.
+
+"What is that?" asked the Professor.
+
+"Barbara wants you to wait till the morning," replied Edith. "I think it
+will be better. This light doesn't make the place look attractive."
+
+Leith moved his big hands in a manner that showed he was willing to wait
+till the following day, and Barbara Herndon gave a little gasp of
+relief. Soma coiled the rope that he had laid out in expectation of an
+immediate descent, and the whole party moved back about thirty yards
+from the obstacle in our path. As I analyzed my own feelings, on turning
+my back upon the spot, I felt that Barbara Herndon was not alone in
+desiring to make the trip when the wholesome sunbeams were pouring into
+the shadowy cauldron.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+INTO THE VALLEY OF ECHOES
+
+Holman and I had sat up late discussing the Vermilion-lined crater on
+the night we halted upon its brink, and it was Leith's voice that roused
+us in the morning. He showed no signs of resentment over the difference
+with Holman on the preceding afternoon, and he attempted to joke with
+Barbara Herndon as we made a hasty breakfast.
+
+"I hope you slept well?" he grinned.
+
+"I didn't," she replied. "I had dreams of that place, and they were
+perfectly horrid dreams."
+
+"Well, dreams don't amount to much," he replied, "and this sunshine will
+soon make you forget them."
+
+The sunshine, or probably the night's rest, had a wonderful effect upon
+the nerves of the younger girl, and she viewed the crater with much more
+composure than on the previous afternoon. Soma had the rope in
+readiness when we approached the edge, and together with another carrier
+he slipped down upon the slippery pathway, and, with head above the rim,
+grinned an invitation to the party to follow his example.
+
+"Now who goes first?" asked Leith.
+
+I had settled that matter with Holman as we sat smoking the night
+before, and I stepped forward while the youngster gripped the rope with
+Kaipi and the other four carriers. We had decided that I should go down
+to the ledge to assist the two girls to the cavern, while he should stay
+above ground to make certain that no hitch would occur while they were
+being lowered.
+
+That place wasn't so bad when you turned your back upon it. After the
+rope had been adjusted I crawled back carefully till my toes hung over
+the edge, then thrusting my hands into the two small crevices in the
+rock I slipped over, feeling at the same time that peculiar sensation in
+the pit of the stomach that one gets when an elevator drops about six
+floors at a fast gait. I was perfectly satisfied that a critical
+examiner, reasoning on Soma's theory of courage, would not have marked
+me down as a great fighter by witnessing the careful manner in which I
+made the descent.
+
+I didn't attempt to look at the gulf beneath me either. Not that one
+could be ignorant of its existence. Every inch of skin seemed to be
+yelling out the information to my brain, but I kept my chin up, and
+tried to ignore the black depths which chilled me whenever I allowed the
+mental photographs of the place to rise up before my vision.
+
+The Professor followed me over the edge, and was guided by Soma to the
+opening in the cavern. Leith came next, and when he landed upon the
+smooth path he stood directly underneath the slipping off spot with the
+evident intention of remaining there to assist the two girls when they
+were lowered down. The post was one that Holman had assigned to me as we
+talked the matter over on the previous evening, and the moment Leith
+showed no inclination to leave the spot, I started toward him from the
+mouth of the cavern, where I had stepped to allow the Professor to pass
+me by.
+
+The big bully immediately noticed my movement, and he waved his hand as
+a signal for me to go back.
+
+"But I'm coming," I snapped.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For the fun of the thing," I shouted, and at that moment I forgot the
+pit in my anxiety to reach the spot before Edith Herndon was lowered
+over.
+
+"Go back at once!" roared Leith. "I will see to the safety of the
+ladies."
+
+I was close to him at that moment, and I returned his angry glare. "I'm
+going to do that," I cried, "if the devil himself ordered me out of the
+way."
+
+Leith looked like the devil at that moment. His sallow face seemed to
+heave as if a disturbed emotional centre was immediately beneath the
+flabby cheeks, and he cursed in an undertone as Edith Herndon slipped
+from the edge and swung for a moment above the ledge before she managed
+to get her footing.
+
+Leith attempted to take her arm as her feet touched the unprotected
+path, but the girl, though unnerved by the ordeal, shook off his big
+claw, and with her hands clasping mine I led her across the short but
+dangerous ledge of rock that led to the opening in the wall. I felt
+strong enough to fight a dozen devils like Leith at that moment. The
+trusting manner in which the dear girl had given her hands into mine
+conferred upon me a strength which the crusader of old felt surging
+through his body when his consecrated sword blade was delivered into his
+hands.
+
+I returned in time to render the same help to Miss Barbara Herndon,
+while Leith still remained upon the path, his manner suggesting that he
+had discovered something humorous in the situation. Holman followed Miss
+Barbara, and then came the islanders, who scrambled over the ledge with
+that utter disregard for safety noticeable in the actions of the
+unimaginative savage. Holman's face seemed to have altered during the
+preceding thirty minutes. The ready smile, which I had first noticed
+when he awakened me on the wharf at Levuka, was gone, and a set, defiant
+look had taken its place. The happenings of the day before, or the
+possible forebodings concerning the immediate future, had changed him
+from a boy to a man.
+
+Soma stood at the mouth of the cavern as we passed through, and he
+grinned at the Professor. The Kanaka had discovered that the Professor
+placed a monetary value upon his information regarding the long-dead
+past, and he was ready to contribute to the contents of the fat notebook
+whenever the opportunity occurred.
+
+"All good people in this party," he cried. "That's mighty plain."
+
+The Professor dived for his lead pencil. He had a scent for copy that a
+New York reporter would have envied.
+
+"How is that, Soma?" he spluttered.
+
+"Wizard men say so," grinned the Kanaka. "Wizard men tell much truth."
+
+"But what did the wizard men say?"
+
+"They say that only the bad boys can slip," answered Soma. "No good men
+either. Big hole just for bad people. That what witch doctors say long,
+long time ago. They call it Ledge of Death."
+
+The Professor's pencil raced madly across the paper, and Holman looked
+back at the black depths with a grim smile upon his clean-cut features.
+
+"I suppose there have been exceptions," he remarked quietly. "There are
+exceptions to every rule, and I suppose an occasional bad egg escaped a
+fall into this abyss in spite of the wizard men's prophecy."
+
+Leith looked up quickly, and he flushed angrily when he found that the
+young fellow's eyes were upon him. Barbara Herndon gave a little
+hysterical laugh, and the Professor stopped writing and looked around
+inquiringly as if he was in doubt whether he had missed something of
+importance.
+
+"What is it?" he inquired. "I didn't hear."
+
+"It was nothing," replied Leith, in his slow, drawling voice. "Holman
+suggested that the word of the wizard men might not be infallible, and
+lest we have some one who ran the gauntlet under false colours we had
+better move on so as to keep the exception out of danger."
+
+The cavern, into which we passed from the slippery ledge, did not lead
+into the interior of the mountain as one would be inclined to think
+after viewing it from the top of the crater. We had hardly traversed it
+for more than sixty yards when we were once again in the bright
+sunlight, in what appeared to be a deep, wide valley in the centre of
+the island. The basalt cliffs surrounded the place on every side, and
+although we had great doubts regarding Leith's veracity, we felt
+inclined to accept his word that the path by which we had come was the
+only one by which we could reach the spot where we stood. The circles of
+black rocks above the tops of the highest trees, though indescribably
+beautiful, were strangely repellent in their weird conformation. They
+struck us as the walls of a prison from which the only way to liberty
+lay across the path in the crater.
+
+The trees--ebony, chatak, dakua, and sandalwood--grew here in greater
+numbers than we had met them on the first day, while the lawyer-vines
+and thorny creepers rivalled the devilish meshes that had held us back
+as we climbed the slope to the Vermilion Pit. Like green serpents they
+covered the treetops, and as we struck forward in the same order as we
+had marched on the first day the solemnity of the place was more
+apparent than ever. It appeared that Nature, for some reason of her own,
+had made the place difficult of access, and that our invasion was
+something that the trees and vines protested against.
+
+But in spite of the strange melancholy of the place, the two girls were
+in much better spirits than they had been on the previous day. The
+successful passage over the ledge had brought about a reaction, and a
+remark of Holman's caused Barbara Herndon to laugh with all the
+spontaneity that was noticeable upon _The Waif_. The effect of that
+ripple of laughter was startling. The sound rebounded from the rocky
+cliffs, cannoned against the barriers opposite, and then bounced
+backward and forward till the whole atmosphere of the valley seemed
+alive with the laughter of sprites. For quite five minutes we stood
+listening, then the silence chased the last faint echoes out across the
+cliffs, and we breathed again.
+
+"It is the Valley of Echoes," said Leith. "The cliffs throw back the
+sound in a marvellous manner."
+
+"I'll not laugh again, not in this spot," murmured Barbara Herndon.
+"Those noises chilled my blood."
+
+In spite of a blazing sun we found the air unpleasantly cool in the
+shaded spots as we struggled slowly through the undergrowth. The moist
+flabbiness of uncommon tropical plants startled us whenever the leaves
+brushed against our faces and hands, while the constant popping of the
+green pods of the nupu, the sounds resembling nothing so much as the
+groans of a person in extreme pain, did not have a cheering effect upon
+the party. The Professor was the only one who seemed to be actually
+enjoying himself, and even his joy was tempered by a malignant Fate.
+While endeavouring to dot down some information tendered him by Soma, he
+had tripped upon a vine that was in wait for such an opportunity, and
+he skinned his nose badly upon a projecting rock.
+
+But rocks or vines would not dampen the Professor's ardour. He saw
+himself upon a pedestal that he would build out of the Polynesian lore
+and the relics which he would collect. With Spartan fortitude he would
+not allow the expedition to halt for one moment while the injured nose
+was being attended to, and he took up the interrupted matter with Soma
+before the blood had been staunched.
+
+Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eye
+upon Soma and the other five carriers, whispered a message.
+
+"Soma much friend of big man."
+
+"How do you know?" I questioned.
+
+"Talk to him out back of camp last night," he murmured. "Me make believe
+sleep, me watch. I think I kill him to-day."
+
+"Kaipi," I whispered, "if you wait a little while I promise you that
+you'll have your revenge for Toni's death. You watch Soma and the
+others, and when the time comes you can give him all he deserves. If you
+stuck a knife into him here Leith would shoot you."
+
+Kaipi nodded his head and trudged forward as Soma came sidling toward
+us. The Fijian's desire to get revenge for his "all same brother's
+death" was something that might be to our advantage later on, and I
+looked upon Kaipi as a staunch ally in the event of trouble.
+
+We ate our midday meal in the sombre silence and again plunged forward.
+The appearance of gayety which Barbara Herndon had tried to assume after
+we had left the Vermilion Pit had passed away, and once again there was
+the look of pathetic helplessness upon the faces of the two girls.
+During the luncheon Holman and I endeavoured to make conversation, but
+the thoughts of both were upon their surroundings, and they answered
+questions with an effort. The prison-like appearance of the valley, and
+the utter absence of sound, both of bird and insect life, had a
+depressing effect upon their nerves.
+
+Holman's face showed that the mental sufferings of the two sisters had
+worked him into a decidedly unfriendly state of mind toward the
+Professor and the big brute who was leading the old scientist on the mad
+hunt, and another quarrel was barely averted during the early afternoon.
+Leith suggested that Edith Herndon should walk beside him so that he
+might assist her over the rough parts of the way, and in the
+conversation that ensued the youngster asserted that the girl was in
+better company when she was walking with her sister and himself. Leith's
+voice rose to a roar as he made another threat regarding what he would
+do if the youngster did not hold his tongue, but Holman was defiant, and
+an immediate conflict was only averted by the tact of Edith Herndon.
+
+The afternoon closed in with us still tramping on. The blood-red sun
+slipped hurriedly toward the basalt barriers that encircled the valley,
+and as I glanced at the cliffs the picture of the creepy ledge, that was
+our only way back to the outer world, was continually in my mind. The
+knowledge that the velvety polish upon the block of porphyry was brought
+there by the hands of thousands who had once peopled the island or
+visited it from the adjacent groups was not provocative of mirth, and I
+knew that the feeling that they were journeying in a place that had been
+of special veneration in long past centuries was producing a depressing
+effect upon the two girls.
+
+As the tropical twilight fell upon the valley we came to one of the
+strange stone structures that are to be found in the Tongan and Cook
+groups, and which have puzzled explorers who have sought in vain to find
+a reason for their construction or an explanation of the methods by
+which a savage people lifted the huge blocks of rock into position.
+
+The one that suddenly appeared before us was situated on a small slope
+that was free from trees and creepers, and as it stood there, black and
+massive, one could fancy it part of the ruins of Karnak instead of a
+relic left by a people that were much below the intelligence of those
+who raised the wonders in the land of the Nile. The four supporting
+piers of stone were about four feet square and fully fifteen feet in
+height, while the immense flat rock that was laid upon them was more
+than twelve feet in length and breadth, with a six-foot thickness. It
+was moss-grown and gray, but the supporting pillars had not deviated one
+inch from the perpendicular, although the weight upon them was
+tremendous. The bed of coral rock on which they rested had proved a
+reliable foundation, and the singular structure had scoffed at time.
+
+The Professor started a lengthy discourse on sacrificial altars the
+moment we halted, ranging from Stonehenge to Toluca in search of
+comparisons, but we were too tired to give it much attention. Holman
+remarked in a whisper that Soma could probably outpoint the Professor if
+it came to an array of facts concerning the probable uses of the
+gigantic table, and when I glanced at the Kanaka, as he stopped to
+listen to the scientist's discourse, I felt inclined to agree with the
+scoffer. Soma had an intelligence that lifted him above his class, and I
+was convinced that many of the Professor's surmises caused him secret
+merriment.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A MIDNIGHT ALARM
+
+I think that Professor Herndon was the only person in the company who
+was quite contented with the day's doings on that evening when we camped
+near the table of stone. The polished slide and the ledge along which we
+had passed to the cavern stirred his imagination concerning the wonders
+that were before him, and he convinced himself that he had the god of
+his ambition by the heel. The fat notebook was made the repository of
+countless surmises regarding the period at which the ledge was in active
+use as a test for courage, and the stone structure that loomed up
+immediately beside the camp was tagged with countless suppositions
+regarding its uses and its probable date of construction. Soma gathered
+in some easily earned shillings by raking his mind in search of
+traditions and retailing them to the scientist by the light of the fire.
+He made magazine prices for tales that he spun from his fertile brain,
+and the Professor could hardly write fast enough in the excitement
+brought about by the discovery of so much historical knowledge.
+
+"It is wonderful!" he cried, pausing for a moment to polish the thick
+lenses of his glasses upon the end of his silk coat. "The chance of
+enlightening the world upon this subject is one that I would not have
+missed for a million dollars."
+
+"The dollars for me," murmured Holman. "I don't think the old world
+cares three cents about anything that happened a thousand years ago in
+this patch."
+
+The Professor adjusted his glasses and turned them upon the doubter for
+the space of three minutes, but Holman was blissfully ignorant of the
+look which the angry archaeologist favoured him with. The youngster was
+watching the firelight upon the face of Miss Barbara Herndon, and his
+thoughts were probably in a dream-fed future instead of a dismal past.
+
+Leith sat silent and gloomy, his head pillowed against the trunk of a
+maupei tree, his face in the shadow of his hat, which he had pulled
+down over his forehead. The supper had been eaten with little
+conversation, the Professor being the only one who showed conversational
+powers of any note. With the notebook already partly filled he felt
+certain of a niche in the Pantheon of Fame, and he could not resist a
+desire to prattle childishly about the sensation which his discoveries
+would cause. It's a terrible thing for a man to get the applause craving
+in its worst form. It is liable to make him do things which no craving
+for treasure would allow him to do, no matter how badly he desired the
+tempting gold.
+
+The girls retired early, and soon afterward Leith wrapped himself up in
+a blanket and lay down at the foot of the tree. The Professor at last
+became tired of firing questions at the wonderfully well-informed Soma,
+and the Kanaka, finding that the market for legends was not as good as
+it was in the early part of the night, retreated to the other fire,
+where Kaipi and the fire carriers were slumbering.
+
+The heavy silence that comes in the night to the outposts of the world
+fell upon the place like a cold hand at that moment. A moon that
+appeared to have a pellicle across it, like the film upon a dead man's
+eye, peeped over the barrier of black rocks--peeped over as if it
+wondered what we were doing in that God-forgotten quarter. Sudden puffs
+of wind rustled the leaves of the maupei and fled hurriedly, and from
+somewhere in the coral rocks one of those red-striped lizards that are
+sometimes found in the rocky parts of the Carolines sent his unearthly
+_shik-shuck_ into the stillness, where one fancied it a little
+projectile of sound crushed in its efforts to pierce the tremendous
+silence of the night. One's imagination pictured the places where there
+were lights and music, the tinkle of glasses, and the laughter of men
+and women, and the wilderness suffered in the comparison. Coral atolls
+with waving palm trees are delightful spots when one reads of them when
+seated in a comfortable armchair in a snug library, but the real island
+comes down heavily upon the nerve-centres when night falls upon the
+spot. Then the fringe dweller feels that he is an outcast from the warm
+places of the world where men and women meet in social intercourse.
+
+Holman, who had been staring in silence at the fire for some twenty
+minutes, turned toward me after the Professor had retired.
+
+"Sleepy?" asked the youngster.
+
+"Worse than that," I muttered.
+
+"Let's turn in."
+
+The "turning in" was an easy performance. We lay down on the pile of
+leaves which the carriers had scraped together, pulled a rug over us,
+and in spite of the surroundings I was soon fast asleep.
+
+It was Holman's fist that disturbed my slumber. It came with some force
+against my short rib, and I sat upright. The moonlight made it possible
+to see across the valley, while every object around the camp was clearly
+outlined.
+
+Holman was sitting up on his leafy bed, and I put a question
+breathlessly as I jerked myself upright.
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"Didn't he say that this place was uninhabited?" asked the youngster.
+
+"Yes," I answered. "Why?"
+
+"Well, some one has just pushed his head and shoulders up above that
+stone table," whispered Holman. "He put his head up, looked across at us
+for about five minutes, then dodged quickly back."
+
+"You weren't dreaming?"
+
+"Dreaming? Rot! I haven't closed my eyes since we retired!"
+
+I threw off the rug and looked around. Leith lay under the maupei tree
+in the same position as we had seen him in at the moment I lay down.
+Near him the Professor snored dismally, probably dreaming dreams of the
+greatness that would be thrust upon him in the near future. No sounds
+came from the tent that sheltered the two girls, but a combination of
+curious nasal sounds rose from the spot where the natives were sleeping
+around their fire.
+
+"It might be one of the niggers," whispered Holman. "Let us see."
+
+We stole silently across the intervening space, and, crouching in the
+shadows, counted the sleepers. There were seven. The prowler that Holman
+had seen upon the top of the stone structure was evidently an outsider,
+and the knowledge brought no pleasant feelings. Leith had assured the
+Professor on several occasions that the island was uninhabited, yet it
+was quite possible that natives from the adjoining groups had visited it
+during the period that elapsed since his last visit. Yet we felt that it
+was no stray visitor from another island that had peeped over the top of
+the massive table, and it was with a suspicious eye upon the sleeping
+Leith that we crept quietly over the coral rocks toward the tremendous
+stone piers of the structure that rose like a monster gateway against
+the gray sky. The atmosphere of that place was indescribable. We seemed
+to be in the midst of relics that were older than the pyramids. The
+temple of Luxor may seem impressive by moonlight, but the knowledge we
+possess of Thebes in its glory somewhat modifies the awe which we would
+feel if we knew nothing of the people who had raised the great monuments
+in the city of Amen-Ra. And Holman and I knew nothing of the dead race
+that erected the mighty stone table on the cleared slope, which by its
+construction gave evidence of a knowledge of mechanics of which the
+present-day Polynesian is entirely ignorant. I recalled the Nan-Tauch
+ruins and the tombs of the mysterious Chan-te-leur kings Ola-Sipa and
+Ola-Sopa in the Carolines, the _tolmas_ and the _langis_ of the
+Marshall and Gilbert groups, and I wished the Professor anything but
+pleasant dreams. The place seemed waiting for the return of its dead. The
+scenery possessed that singular expectancy that compels one to turn around
+every few moments to convince one's self that an unfriendly watcher is not
+immediately in the rear.
+
+Still keeping in the shadows, we circled the camp till we were in front
+of the stone table, but just when I took a step into the moonlight space
+before it, Holman grasped my arm and drew me back.
+
+"Look!" he gurgled. "Look! there he is again!"
+
+All doubts concerning the youngster's previous observations were swept
+away at that moment. A head and shoulders rose suddenly above the black
+line of the immense flat stone, remained there for the space of three
+minutes, then dropped back so that we could not see it from the position
+in which we stood.
+
+"Take the two front pillars!" whispered Holman. "I'll watch the two back
+ones. Come on!"
+
+We dashed across the open space, the youngster rushing to the rear,
+while I ran to the front columns. It was impossible for any one to
+descend unless we saw him, and with nerves on a tension we walked around
+the huge supports and watched anxiously for the midnight watcher to
+descend.
+
+We must have remained on guard for twenty minutes or more, but there was
+no sign of the spy. Around us the massive structure cast a patch of
+velvety shadow, but not the slightest sound came from above.
+
+Holman tired of the inactivity, and stepped across to where I was
+standing. "I'm going to climb that chestnut tree and see if the beggar
+is still there," he murmured. "You stop here till I take an
+observation."
+
+He darted across to the big Pacific chestnut and climbed hurriedly,
+while I walked round and round the square pillars and strained my ears
+for the slightest sound that would give a hint that the person on the
+roof of the mysterious table was preparing to descend.
+
+A low whistle from Holman pierced the silence, and I answered.
+
+"Come up here," he cried softly. "He's given us the slip."
+
+I climbed the tree to the branch where the young fellow sat awaiting me.
+From his position he had a clear view of the top of the big table, and
+as I reached him I looked through an opening in the thick leaves. The
+top of the stone was empty!
+
+"Do you think he slipped down while I was climbing the tree?" asked
+Holman.
+
+"I'm certain he didn't," I answered. "It would have been impossible."
+
+We stared at the stone in silence. The top was covered with short moss
+that had gathered there through the centuries, and instead of being flat
+as we had surmised there was a noticeable slope, so that the part that
+was directly behind the camp was fully two feet higher than the rear.
+This was the only peculiarity in its construction, and although we sat
+in silence, staring at its moss-covered surface, we were utterly unable
+to put forward the slightest supposition that would account for the
+disappearance of the watcher. The incident was an extraordinary one. The
+man could not have dropped from the table before we reached the
+supporting piers, and we were equally certain that he had not slipped
+down the pillars while we stood guard beneath.
+
+"I'm going up there," muttered Holman. "We can get the rope from the
+camp. Come along! I'd like a look at that place at closer quarters."
+
+We climbed hastily down the tree, crept cautiously back to the camp and
+took the stout rope which we had used in reaching the Ledge of Death.
+The camp was quiet. The curious nasal sounds produced by the natives,
+together with the rather high-toned snore of Professor Herndon, were the
+only sounds that came through the still night.
+
+Holman flung one end of the rope over a projecting corner of the flat
+slab, twisted one half of it round and round the pillar to make
+occasional grips which we could use in the ascent, then clutching the
+hanging end he worked himself slowly up. I followed him, only to find
+the upper surface of the table as bare of any signs of life as we had
+previously noted from our perch in the chestnut tree. The tough moss
+upon the stone was fully four inches long, and covered the slab
+completely. In vain we stamped around looking for a possible hiding
+place. The massive block didn't offer a cranny that a lizard could hide
+in, and with an unsolved mystery upon our hands we descended to the
+ground.
+
+"What do you make of it?" asked Holman.
+
+I shook my head. The enigma baffled me. Our suspicions regarding the
+honesty of Leith made the strange appearance of the figure on the table
+of stone more perplexing than it would have been under ordinary
+circumstances. Leith had asserted that the island was uninhabited, yet
+we were not inclined to rush to him with the news of the discovery. We
+felt that it was another of the small discoveries that made us pile up
+suspicions against the big bully at the head of the party. We had no
+proof of the midnight visitor, and the story of his sudden disappearance
+while we watched below would only provoke an unbelieving grin from
+Leith, and an idiotic laugh from the foolish old Professor.
+
+"Better keep it to ourselves," growled Holman.
+
+"For the present at any rate," I remarked. "If Leith knows that there
+are others upon the island, and if those others are friendly to him, it
+will only make him more careful of his actions if we tell what we have
+seen to-night."
+
+Arriving at this decision we came back to the camp and crawled quietly
+under the rug, where we watched the mystical monument till the flaming
+tropical dawn lit up the valley.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+KAIPI PERFORMS A SERVICE
+
+The Professor used a roll of films in snap-shotting the stone table
+while we were breaking camp. He photographed it from every point of the
+compass, and made a magnificent effort to dislocate his collarbone by
+falling from a tree up which Holman had urged him to climb so that he
+could get a view of the upper surface. In his mad pursuit of antiquities
+the Professor forgot that tree climbing was an accomplishment that he
+had never mastered properly in the days of his youth, and our departure
+was somewhat delayed by the shock which he received from the fall. The
+camera fell upon the pile of leaves which Leith had used as a mattress,
+and it escaped with abrasions that were microscopical compared to those
+received by the Professor, who glared angrily at Holman as Edith Herndon
+attended to his injuries.
+
+"I thought you could climb," murmured the youngster. "'Pon my word I
+did. I wouldn't have urged you to get up there if I didn't think you
+could hang to a limb."
+
+"I am acquainted with a number of persons who would look well hanging to
+a limb," retorted the Professor, as he rubbed his ankles.
+
+"Same here," said Holman, unperturbed by the sharp retort. "When I think
+over their actions, Professor, I wonder how they escaped being suspended
+from such places. Especially when you consider that trees are
+plentiful."
+
+We made slow progress during the morning. The Professor's accident
+robbed him of a lot of the nimbleness which had been noticeable during
+the two preceding days, and the other members of the expedition had to
+move at a pace that would suit his stiff limbs.
+
+"I'm unlucky," whispered Holman, as he sat beside me at the midday halt.
+"I tried to show him how he could get a good snapshot, and now he's as
+poisonous as a red-necked cobra just because he was silly enough to skin
+his shins."
+
+We crossed the lowest part of the valley during the early afternoon,
+and commenced to ascend gradually toward the black walls on the far
+side. Leith had remarked at the lunch table that we would probably reach
+our destination on the following morning, and the information brought a
+thrill of expectation in spite of the suspicions we entertained. The
+undefined dread had upset our nerves, and I think the two girls, as well
+as Holman and myself, were looking forward anxiously to the arrival at
+the objective point so that our suspicions could be either verified or
+abandoned. Leith was more affable than usual on that afternoon, and he
+held forth in such a gloomy fashion upon the wonders that were within
+reach that the Professor almost forgot his injuries and his animus
+against Holman as he listened to the description.
+
+"It is my opinion that the island was the burial ground of the chiefs of
+the nearby groups," remarked Leith. "There is every indication that the
+people who were buried here were not ordinary people, as you will see
+when you view the wonders that will meet your eyes to-morrow."
+
+The Professor beamed through his thick glasses, and, forgetting his
+injuries, gave a little jump in negotiating an obstruction, but the look
+of agony which passed across his face proved that his injured limb
+objected to useless gambols.
+
+"We may be wrong after all," muttered Holman, after he had listened to
+Leith's description of the wonders of the tombs of the long-dead members
+of Polynesian royal families. "I hate to be suspicious of a fellow, and
+I'll be glad if he proves genuine in the end."
+
+"So will I," I remarked. "If he measures up all right I'll be half
+inclined to apologize before I go back to take a gruelling from Captain
+Newmarch."
+
+It was Kaipi who stampeded the small ray of charity that had pierced the
+cluster of suspicions we had collected. The little Fijian performed the
+trick about seven o'clock in the evening, and it was done in a most
+effective manner. When we had made camp, Leith had sent Soma on ahead
+with the ostensible purpose of locating the easiest route to the base of
+the cliffs, and an hour afterward Kaipi managed to attract my attention,
+and he indicated by signs that he had information to impart. I seized a
+chance to help him with the small tent which sheltered the two sisters,
+and as we tugged at the knots he slipped a small piece of paper into my
+hand.
+
+"What is it?" I asked.
+
+"Soma drop it," he explained nervously. "I follow him just little way
+think get good chance kill him, but no chance come. He drop little piece
+of paper from his belt; me pick 'em up. I no know what it say; you
+read."
+
+I crammed the note into my pocket as Leith approached, but at the first
+opportunity I dived into a thicket of leaves and opened it with nervous
+fingers. It was brief, exceedingly brief, but no number of words could
+have produced the same cold chill of dread which took possession of me
+as I glanced over the scrawl upon the paper. The note read:
+
+"Five babies for kindergarten. Arrange everything. Meet at the Long
+Gallery."
+
+I stumbled out on the clearing in a half stupor. The arrival of the
+long-expected confirmation of our suspicions had the same effect upon me
+as a blow from a sandbag. Leith was apparently everything that Holman
+and the girls had suspected him of being, and as I looked around at the
+nearly impenetrable jungle growth upon which the night had come down
+with that appalling swiftness of the tropics, I understood the helpless
+condition in which we were placed. Soma and the other five carriers were
+evidently tools of the big bully; the person or persons to whom the note
+was addressed would also stand behind him in a fray, and against this
+little army there was Holman, Kaipi, the two sisters, and myself. The
+Professor's insane craving for a sight of the antiquities would probably
+make him a partisan of the big brute till his devilish tricks were laid
+sufficiently bare to allow the childish mind of the scientist to see
+through them. The situation was pitiful to contemplate, and sick with
+terror at thoughts of the fate of the two girls, I found Holman and
+pulled him out of the circle of light thrown by the fire which Kaipi was
+tending.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"I've got proof!" I cried. "Soma dropped a note that Leith sent him off
+with when we halted. Kaipi found it and brought it to me."
+
+I recited the few words that were now pounding madly through my brain,
+but the mere recitation would not satisfy Holman. He wanted to see the
+words--to stare at them, so that his eyes might confirm the information
+which his ears had gathered, and together we dived deeper into the
+creepers till it was safe for him to light a match by which he could
+view the scrawl.
+
+"My God!" he cried hoarsely. "He's a devil, Verslun! We're fools!
+Infernal fools! Do you hear me? I'll shoot the brute now!"
+
+He flung aside my hands and made a dash toward the fire, plunging
+through the creepers with a strength born of the sudden flame of temper
+which had come with the confirmation of Leith's duplicity. The boy's
+love for Barbara Herndon made him a madman as he raced madly to obtain
+vengeance from the brute who had led us into the trap.
+
+Like two maniacs we rushed into the light of the fire, but only the two
+girls and the Professor were seated round it. Leith was not in sight.
+
+"Where is he?" gasped Holman.
+
+The Professor looked up in mild astonishment. "Who?" he asked.
+
+"Leith!" cried the boy. "Where has he gone?"
+
+"Mr. Leith has gone forward to help Soma," squeaked the Professor. "It
+will be moonlight, so he took the opportunity of making certain about
+the direction we were to go in the morning. He said he would not be back
+before daylight."
+
+Holman mastered his anger, and I beckoned the Professor to one side. It
+was necessary to make an attempt to convince the foolish old scientist
+that we were in the hands of a scoundrel, and I determined to place the
+note and our suspicions before him.
+
+I told hurriedly of the appearance of the figure upon the stone table on
+the previous evening, but before I had time to tell of the note, the
+doddering old imbecile interrupted.
+
+"What's that?" he cried. "Some one else upon the island? Well, they
+can't steal the honour of the discoveries. I have first claim upon
+everything we find upon the place. Mr. Leith and I made that arrangement
+before we left Sydney. Besides, it is Mr. Leith's island, and if other
+scientists are here--
+
+"Oh, confound it! Who said they were scientists?" roared Holman. "It's
+bad luck for us that they are not. Scientists are harmless, but these
+are natives or something worse."
+
+"Leith will fix 'em!" cried the Professor, ignoring the youngster's
+comment on the inoffensive nature of men of his type. "Leith will put
+them off the place--"
+
+"Stop chattering and read that!" I interrupted. "Your precious friend
+sent this ahead by Soma. He dropped it and we got hold of it."
+
+Holman struck a match and held it over the scrap of paper while the
+scientist stared at it through his thick glasses.
+
+"Well?" he queried. "What has this nonsense to do with me?"
+
+"The five babies," snapped Holman.
+
+"Five babies?" repeated the Professor. "I know nothing about babies!"
+
+His small head wagged backward and forward as he made the statement, and
+his evident inability to see that the reference concerned us irritated
+the youngster beyond measure.
+
+"You're the biggest baby of the five!" he roared. "You're a madman! Come
+away, Verslun; it's no use arguing with him!"
+
+The Professor gave an indignant snort, straightened his small body, as
+if he contemplated an attack upon the youngster, then dashed madly back
+to the fire, where we watched him bobbing his head up and down as he
+spoke to the two girls. His confidence in the rascal who was possibly
+luring him to his death was pitiful to see, and we recognized at that
+moment that it would be useless to waste any further arguments with him.
+
+"We've got to get out of this scrape by our own efforts," muttered
+Holman. "The girls won't leave him, worse luck. If they would I'd turn
+tail this minute and make an attempt to fight our way back to the
+yacht."
+
+"And I doubt if you will find a haven there," I remarked. "That bilious
+captain was in a great hurry to send word to Leith that I had got safely
+by his farewell bombardment. We're in for it, old man, and we might as
+well realize the fact right now."
+
+"You're not sorry I found you on that pile of pearl shell?"
+
+"Sorry?" I cried. "I'm glad, man--I'm infernally glad."
+
+Holman gripped my hand, and then we crawled through the bushes toward
+the spot where Soma and Leith had started off on their supposed work of
+exploration.
+
+"What can we do?" I asked.
+
+"Wait round here and pot him when he is coming back," said the youngster
+cheerfully. "But we should let the girls know something, shouldn't we?
+That old fool will tell them a garbled account that will frighten them
+out of their wits. One of us had better go and try to quiet their
+fears."
+
+"You go then," I remarked. "I'll wait here till you come back."
+
+Holman crept quietly toward the campfire, and I waited in the
+undergrowth. The moon was rising in the east and a soft gray light wiped
+out the intense blackness that had come upon the place after the short
+twilight. The tops of the cliffs toward which we were journeying were
+tipped by a brilliant thread of silver as the moon peeped above their
+ramparts, and I crept deeper into the shadows as the full glory of the
+glowing orb turned the night into day.
+
+I had waited some thirty minutes for Holman when I noticed a movement
+beneath a small bush some fifteen paces to my right. I watched the spot
+without moving, and presently a dark figure crept out of the shelter and
+moved cautiously toward the camp. Convinced that the visitor was Soma, I
+pulled out my revolver and waited, wondering as I watched what he
+intended to do.
+
+The black figure came closer. He paused to listen to the sounds that
+came from the fire, and as he lifted his head the moonlight fell across
+his face, and I put the revolver back in my pocket.
+
+"Kaipi," I murmured.
+
+The Fijian crept quietly to the spot where I was hiding.
+
+"I come for you," he muttered.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Funny things much," he gurgled. "Light on mountain, no see from here.
+Me watch it, think it something bad. Come, I'll show you."
+
+Holman returned at that moment and I explained what Kaipi had just told
+me.
+
+"The devil!" muttered the youngster. "The note said that he would meet
+them at the Long Gallery. See, the light is not visible from our camp,
+and the brute never thought that one of us would be far enough from the
+camp to notice it. If it's a signal we might be able to reach the spot
+and see what is actually going on. If we leave things till to-morrow I'm
+afraid we'll be too late."
+
+"But the girls?" I cried.
+
+"We'll get back," he replied. "I told them how everything is, Verslun,
+and they're not afraid. Edith has an automatic pistol that she brought
+from the yacht, and she'll use it if she is forced to. Come on!"
+
+We followed Kaipi into the shadows, the Fijian picking his way with
+wonderful instinct through the clumps. At about half a mile from the
+camp he stopped and pointed to the cliffs.
+
+"Me see light flash way over there," he whispered. "You wait and see."
+
+We crouched down and waited. The minutes passed slowly, but the black
+barrier away to the east gave no sign of life.
+
+"I think Kaipi must have sighted a star," muttered Holman. "There is
+nothing--"
+
+He broke off abruptly and gripped my arm. High up in the basalt barrier,
+at a spot about three quarters of a mile from where we were crouched, a
+tiny flame suddenly appeared, blazed for an instant, then died away
+again. Three times it flared up and as quickly died away, but at the
+third disappearance Holman and I, with the vengeance-seeking Kaipi, were
+struggling through the network of damp vegetation toward the spot from
+which the signal had come.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE DEVIL DANCERS
+
+The snaky vines seemed to us to be leagued with Leith as we tried to
+force our way to the spot where the tiny flash of light had appeared
+amongst the rocks. The lawyer-vines gripped our ankles and flung us upon
+our faces scores of times, but we scrambled to our feet and rushed on.
+Kaipi had made the discovery at an opportune moment. Now that we were
+certain that Leith contemplated treachery, the wait through the long
+night would have maddened us. We wanted to meet him quickly, and
+instinct told us that the appointment place mentioned in the note was
+identical with the spot to which we were fighting our way.
+
+We were bruised and bleeding when we reached the foot of the black
+cliffs whose perpendicular walls towered above us. We were almost
+certain that the light had been flashed from a point immediately above
+the spot where we came face to face with the barrier, but the scaling of
+the black barricade was a proposition that seemed incapable of solution
+as we rushed along the base.
+
+"This is the spot," gasped Holman. "This big tree cluster was just to
+the right of the place where the light was flashed."
+
+"That's so," I remarked, "but how are we to get up to the point where
+the signal came from?"
+
+We raced madly up and down the front of the strange black wall, hunting
+eagerly for a place that offered the slightest foothold by which we
+could climb to the terraces that we could see far above, but the search
+was a futile one. The tremendous mountain of ebony rock appeared to have
+been driven up out of the earth during some volcanic disturbance, and as
+we stumbled blindly along we thought it would be easier to scale the
+outside wall of a New York skyscraper than the slippery sides of the
+obstruction in our path.
+
+It was Holman who found a key to the situation. The big clump of maupei,
+or Pacific chestnut, that we had taken as a landmark when we were
+running through the moonlit night, grew close to the barrier, and the
+limbs of several of the trees scraped the sides of the basalt columns as
+the faint night breeze moved them backward and forward.
+
+"There's a ledge up there," whispered the youngster. "Look! It's about
+fifty feet from the ground. If we could climb a tree we might be able to
+reach it from one of the limbs."
+
+He had hardly outlined the proposition before we were swarming up the
+trunk, Holman in the lead by right of discovery, and the nimble Kaipi in
+the rear. Higher and higher the youngster climbed into the thick green
+foliage. He reached the topmost branches, and selecting one that led
+toward the rocky wall, he straddled it and worked his way slowly
+forward.
+
+Kaipi and I clung to the fork of the limb and waited, and as I watched
+Holman the wisdom of our actions was assailed by a cold doubt. We had
+left the two girls entirely unprotected, and if Leith reached the camp
+before we returned, and heard from the chattering Professor the story of
+the finding of the scrap of paper, it would be reasonable to suppose
+that he would consider the moment had arrived for the perpetration of
+any deviltry he had planned.
+
+But Holman's actions interrupted my mental criticism of the wisdom of
+our plans. The youngster had reached the extreme end of the limb, and he
+was clawing madly at the rock to obtain a footing. He succeeded after a
+five minutes' struggle, and he sent a breathless whisper back to our
+perch.
+
+"There's a ledge here," he murmured. "I think we can climb up from it.
+Hurry along, and I'll give you a hand."
+
+I needed a hand when I reached the end of that leafy seesaw. I was much
+heavier than the boy, and the limb could hardly support my weight when I
+neared the end. Holman reached out his hand at a moment when I thought
+that a drop through the air would be my reward for attempting aerial
+exhibitions, and the next moment I was beside him on a little projection
+that barely gave us a footing.
+
+"It's easy climbing just above us," whispered Holman. "Wait till we get
+Kaipi."
+
+The Fijian came along the limb with the agility of a trapeze artist, and
+when he reached the ledge we stared up at the dizzy heights that rose
+above our little resting place. Small jutting projections, like
+gargoyles, stuck out from the wall, and we looked at them hungrily.
+
+"If we had only brought the rope!" cried the boy. "Say, Verslun, put
+your face against the rock and I'll climb on to your shoulders."
+
+I did so, and the youngster climbed up cautiously. For a long time he
+stood there, peering around in an effort to discover a path by which we
+could go upward and onward, but at last he stepped off, and I looked up
+to find him clinging to the wall like a huge beetle. A pack of fat
+clouds that had harried the moon during the earlier part of the evening
+now closed in upon her, and we were in complete darkness. The threshing
+limb of the maupei tree that was within a yard or two of the spot where
+Kaipi and I stood waiting disappeared in the night, and the scratching
+of Holman's shoes high above our heads came down to us through the
+intense silence and proved that he was holding his position with
+difficulty.
+
+A small piece of shale hit me on the shoulder after a long wait, and I
+turned my face upward.
+
+"Verslun!" breathed the strained voice of the youngster. "Are you
+there?"
+
+"Well?" I asked.
+
+"H'sh!" he murmured. "We are right near the spot, Verslun. If Kaipi
+climbs up on your shoulders to this place I think the two of us could
+pull you up. Are you willing?"
+
+"Come on, Kaipi," I whispered, and the Fijian climbed nimbly upon me and
+moved up into the void above.
+
+"Now, Verslun," muttered Holman. "Reach up till we get a grip of your
+wrists. Are you ready? Well, try hard, man! Think of those two helpless
+girls and dig your toes in!"
+
+I didn't need any reminder concerning the position of the two sisters
+as I stood on tiptoe and scratched with my fingers at the crumbling
+ledge upon which Holman and the Fijian crouched. The predicament of
+Edith Herndon, and not fears for my own safety, made me scratch madly
+for a foothold as I swung above the shelf I left. Kaipi and Holman
+tugged till every muscle in my arms shrieked out against the way they
+were being handled. But I was going up. I "chinned" the crumbling layer
+of rock upon which my fingers had a perilous grip, laid my chest across
+the shelf and wriggled into safety.
+
+"That's good," whispered Holman. "Don't puff so hard, man! We're too
+close to take any chances."
+
+I got upon my hands and knees and followed him along the narrow pathway.
+Over a thousand obstructions we crawled like three rock snakes, till
+finally the boy halted and turned toward me.
+
+"See the streak of light through that split in the rock?" he whispered.
+"Look in front of you! Well, they're inside."
+
+The split in the rock to which Holman had pointed was a perpendicular
+crevice about four feet in length, but possessing only a width of six
+inches. It separated two rock masses that were fully eighteen inches
+thick, and as we wriggled noiselessly toward it we saw that it gave us a
+glimpse of the interior of a huge cavern, the part of which that was
+just inside our point of observation being illuminated by a swinging
+ship's lamp which hung by a rope that dropped from the vaulted dome.
+
+The lamp swung directly in front of the crevice through which we peered
+breathlessly, and for a few seconds it was the only object that was
+visible. Gradually our eyes became accustomed to the light, and we found
+that a pair of brown legs were moving slowly along the floor past our
+spyhole. A body, gorgeously decorated in mats of green and crimson
+parrot feathers, followed the legs, and then came a head that was hidden
+behind a mask of sennet daubed thickly with coral lime and ochre till it
+appeared a ghastly nightmare.
+
+The horror moved upon its stomach, and, viewing it as we did through the
+narrow cranny, it appeared as if the film of a biograph was being slowly
+dragged before our eyes. Another pair of legs followed the masked head,
+another body, and another mask that was even more fear-inspiring than
+the first. And the procession continued. Three, four, five, and
+six--each succeeding one being arrayed in a mask of more ghastly
+appearance than those which had preceded him. The sixth was followed by
+the first, who had wriggled clear around the circle of light thrown by
+the lamp, and in perfect silence the infernal snaky circle moved
+backward round and round, the faint light shining on bare legs, on
+bodies from which the parrot mats were thrust aside by the contortions,
+and upon the masks that were weirdly fantastic and Mephistophelian.
+
+They had circled the floor about ten times when Holman tugged my coat
+and I wriggled back from the crevice.
+
+"What's up?" My lips were dry as I put the question.
+
+"Kaipi."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Cleared out. Those human serpents scared him. Go softly, man! We must
+get him before he attempts to go down that cliff or he'll break his
+thick head."
+
+We caught up to the deserter on the ledge to which Holman and the Fijian
+had dragged me a short time before, and the youngster abused the
+frightened native as he endeavoured to turn him back.
+
+"No, no!" shrieked the Fijian. "Me no see dance like that. Me die if I
+stay."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"It is 'tivo'--death dance," gasped Kaipi. "Wizard men dance it.
+Something going happen, damn bad."
+
+"But they can't get you," cried Holman, "Come back and watch them. Soma
+and Leith will be there directly, and you'll get your revenge."
+
+But Kaipi would have nothing more of the performance in the rocky
+chamber. The repulsive masks and the backward wriggling of the six upon
+the floor had upset his fighting stomach for the time being, and we
+could not induce him to return.
+
+"Well, you wait here," ordered Holman. "We're going back, but we'll
+return in a few hours and pick you up. Don't move from this ledge."
+
+Kaipi would promise anything if he was not forced to witness the
+performance, and we left him huddled up in the darkness, and returned to
+the spyhole in the wall.
+
+The "tivo," as the Fijian called it, was still in progress. Without
+noise, the six half-nude figures were describing circles upon the smooth
+floor. The silence and the serpentlike motions had a peculiar hypnotic
+effect upon us, and in a sort of dreamlike trance we watched them
+wriggle by the narrow aperture to which we pressed our faces. With each
+circle more of the brown, sweat-polished bodies showed beneath the
+twisted mats. The pace was beginning to tell upon them now. Slower and
+slower they moved past the crevice, till at last all movement ceased,
+and, apparently lifeless, they lay face downward upon the floor.
+
+I thought of the two girls at the lonely camp as we sat watching, and I
+knew well that Holman's thoughts were turned in the same direction. We
+had seen nothing of Leith, but an intuition that would not be put aside
+connected Leith with the strange ceremony that was in progress within
+the cavern, and we were chained to the spot.
+
+I have no idea how long the six figures remained motionless upon the
+floor. It may have been an hour, it may have been two. The mystery of
+the performance we were witnessing seemed to drag us into a world where
+minutes and hours did not exist. We were dumfounded by the confirmation
+of our suspicions and the peculiarly devilish exhibition, and I shook
+off the lethargy with an effort as Holman prodded me with his finger and
+pointed at a spot beyond the body of the dancer who lay immediately in
+front of the spyhole.
+
+Looking in the direction Holman pointed I saw that another light was
+approaching through the gloom of the cavern. It bobbed toward us slowly,
+a tiny pin point that came nearer and nearer as the bearer walked in the
+direction of the six. The distance it was away from the dancers, which
+was evident from the time that elapsed from the moment we saw it till it
+was close up, convinced us that the cavern was of an enormous length,
+and the words "Long Gallery" in the note which Soma had dropped came up
+before my mind. There was no doubt that the cave was the meeting spot
+which Leith had mentioned, and as I felt Holman's body stiffen as he
+shouldered against me for a share of the peephole, I knew that he
+believed that the treacherous brute was one of the three that were
+approaching behind the bobbing lamp.
+
+The bodies of the dancers, or at least the parts that we could see,
+became tense and rigid. A soft hiss went round the circle, and once
+again the wriggling movement started. But this time the six went forward
+instead of backward. They broke out of the circular formation, and in a
+long glistening line moved up the cavern toward the three approaching.
+The lamp halted, then it was raised high in the air as the crawling half
+dozen approached, and Holman gave a curious little gurgle as the light
+fell upon the three newcomers. Wrapped in parrot feathers and a white
+mask, the lamp bearer stood revealed as Soma. Immediately behind him was
+a tall white man in the same outlandish garb, while the last of the
+three, barearmed and barelegged, and wearing an immense headdress of
+plumes, was Leith!
+
+The snaky six circled the three at a respectful distance, then, again
+breaking into a single file formation, they turned toward the end of the
+cave nearest our spyhole, and behind the length of creeping bodies,
+Soma, the tall white who had only one eye, and Leith came slowly.
+
+Holman's breath came faster as the procession approached. The
+exhibition chilled us. There was a devilish suggestiveness in the
+proceeding. In some indescribable manner it brought up mental pictures
+that were nauseating, and it required something of an effort to watch
+the performance. The mystery of the silent night, the thoughts of the
+danger which threatened the two girls, and the glimpses of the
+astounding performance within the cavern brought a dazed mental
+condition that made us doubt our sanity.
+
+I felt Holman's hand reach out across my shoulder as the procession
+moved down upon us, and instinctively I understood the movement. The
+cold barrel of a revolver had slipped by my face, and I gripped his
+wrist and forced the hand downward. The manner in which Soma and the
+one-eyed man walked in front of the big brute made it impossible to
+shoot with telling effect, and Leith was the person we desired to kill
+at that moment. The others seemed to be but creatures of his will, and
+he stood up in our minds as a devil whose existence was a menace to
+everything that was pure and clean.
+
+The three newcomers moved to the side of the cavern, so that nothing
+except their bare feet were visible, and backward and forward in front
+of those feet moved the human serpents with a regularity that was
+stupefying. In an unbroken line they would move forward, flatten
+themselves upon the floor, then, with a unanimity that was remarkable,
+they would wriggle backward, to repeat the same movement over again.
+
+Holman pulled me away at last, and we retired to a point that made it
+possible for us to converse in low whispers without being heard.
+
+"What will we do?" he gasped. "I can't stay there any longer! I want to
+get inside to the devil! I don't want to shoot him; I want to throttle
+him with my two hands!"
+
+"But the entrance to the cavern is from somewhere on the other side of
+the hill," I remonstrated, as the young fellow raved about our
+helplessness.
+
+"We must get there!"
+
+"Don't lose your head about it," I remarked. "Keep cool and we'll win
+out in the long run."
+
+It was useless to speak of patience to that boy at the moment. He clawed
+desperately at the slippery wall in an endeavour to find a path that
+would lead us to the opening on the other side by which Leith had made
+his entry, but the attempt appeared to be madness. A dozen times the
+youngster scrambled up rough portions that offered a slight footing, but
+each time he slipped back bruised and battered. He would listen to no
+arguments. The desire to get to the mouth of the cavern, and kill Leith
+before the morning, had produced an insanity, and we crawled and climbed
+along the face of those basalt cliffs in a manner that chilled my
+spinal marrow. Holman possessed the courage of a maniac. His imagination
+was blinded to the dangers that lay alongside the crumbling shelves of
+rock, and I scrambled behind him wondering dimly what would happen to
+Edith and her sister if an unkind fate flung us from the ledge into the
+darkness from which the soft croon of the chestnut clumps came up like a
+warning against our foolhardiness.
+
+Holman paused at the end of a wearisome climb, and he drew himself
+upright. At that moment the cloud-harried moon dragged herself from
+beneath the pack, and the young fellow gave a cry of joy.
+
+"We can do it from here, Verslun," he cried. "I see a path to the top.
+Come along, man!"
+
+"What about Kaipi?" I gasped. "We'll never find our way back here."
+
+"Let him sit there," he snorted. "Hurry or the moon will be under the
+clouds before we cross the cliff."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TOMBS OF SILENCE
+
+For my own part I found no great liking for the moonlight. Up to that
+moment I had followed blindly in the tracks of Holman, nerved somewhat
+by the thought that the trail he passed over would carry me. The dangers
+were hidden by the darkness, and my imagination was too stunned by the
+happenings of the night to make any endeavour to torture my nerves by
+picturing them.
+
+But the reappearance of the moon brought an opportunity to my eyes, and
+I wondered if we could negotiate the goat track which the youngster was
+scrambling over. I turned my face to the wall and crawled timorously in
+the rear. Higher and higher we went with bleeding fingers and knees, but
+at last Holman reached the top, and I dragged myself up beside him.
+
+"Get up!" he cried savagely. "We must kill the devil before morning."
+
+We got to our feet and started to run toward what we knew to be the
+direction of the cavern. The ground sloped gradually, and we reasoned
+that it would continue to fall away till we reached the mouth of the
+cavern by which Leith had entered from the far side. For once we had a
+clear run. At that height there was little vegetation, and at a mad gait
+we sped across a bare stretch where the only obstacles were lumps of
+rock that were scattered around in great profusion.
+
+"If--if we could find the place and block the devil and all his gang
+inside," gasped Holman.
+
+"That's too good a thing to entertain," I spluttered.
+
+"We might, Verslun! We might!" he cried. "I've got a feeling that we've
+been picked to put that devil out of existence. That's why I'm taking a
+chance in leaving the girls back there at the camp. I believe I'm going
+to kill him, but whether it is to-night or some other time I don't
+know."
+
+"The sooner the better," I stammered. "From what Kaipi said about that
+dance, something out of the way is going to happen, and I've got a
+hunch that the something will happen to us."
+
+Holman remained silent, and we raced on, moving down the slope at an
+angle that we judged would bring us somewhere near the entrance. At
+moments my brain assured me that it was a mad proceeding, but something
+of the certainty with which the youngster looked upon himself as the
+Fate-appointed destroyer of Leith came to me as I raced beside him, and
+I put aside the fears for Edith Herndon's safety that besieged me as I
+ran. The last doubt about Leith's treachery had been chased away by the
+dance we had witnessed, and I felt assured that the man was a monster, a
+vile thing, who, for some purpose that I could not allow myself to
+ponder over, had brought the foolish old scientist and his daughters
+into a place of terrors. Treachery had been apparent from the start. It
+was only the confidence of the old antiquarian that had blinded our eyes
+to a score of incidents that should have convinced us that the brute had
+some ulterior motive in view. During that mad race through the night the
+big sallow-faced giant appeared to us as a devil, a fiend that was
+connected with some sort of horrible practices that had continued to
+exist in this remote islet long after all trace of such things had been
+lost in those islands that were visited by traders and missionaries.
+Kaipi connected the dance with death, and the same conclusion had come
+to us before we had heard the words of the frightened Fijian.
+
+Holman slackened speed, and we dodged through a mass of boulders that we
+judged were in a direct line with the crevice through which we had
+witnessed the happenings in the cave.
+
+"We should be near the place if there is an entrance to it on this
+side," he muttered. "This pile of rocks looks from--oh, Gee! here's a
+path!"
+
+It was a path, sure enough. It wound in and out among the rocks, a
+narrow beaten trail, singularly white against the black surroundings.
+
+Holman stopped and took up a handful of the dust. "They coat it with
+coral lime to make it plain in the darkness," he growled. "Come on,
+Verslun, the wriggly batch must be straight ahead."
+
+I pulled the army Colt from my pocket and ran softly abreast of the
+youngster. The corrosive terror of the earlier part of the evening had
+fled then, and my nerves had taken up a sort of dare-devil attitude
+toward all happenings that the future might hold in store. Besides, the
+more I thought of Leith, the greater his villainy appeared to be, and to
+save Edith Herndon from the slightest contact with the ugly ruffian was
+a task that would give the greatest coward in the world the courage of a
+warrior.
+
+The white path wound in and out of the boulders, which became thicker
+as we advanced, and suddenly it dived through a dark passage into the
+side of the hill. We felt that we were at the mouth of the burrow by
+which Leith and his dancers had entered, and we moved into the shadow to
+reconnoitre. Leith had informed the Professor that he would not return
+to the camp till the following morning, so the chances were that the
+treacherous scoundrel was still assisting at the ceremonies that we had
+witnessed.
+
+"Shall we go in?" whispered Holman.
+
+"As you like," I answered.
+
+He moved toward the mouth of the burrow, then stopped and turned toward
+me. "What time is it?"
+
+"It's ten minutes of midnight," I replied.
+
+"We've got six hours," he whispered. "Come along, we'll chance it."
+
+Very cautiously we moved into the darkness of the passageway, feeling
+our way along the walls that were cold and damp from the moisture which
+had soaked through from the crown of the cliff. The place was not more
+than five feet wide, and as I walked along on one side of the wall,
+Holman, feeling his way along the other, could touch me whenever he
+wished to ascertain my position. Our shoes made no sound upon the floor
+of the corridor. It was covered deep with fine dust, upon which we
+walked noiselessly.
+
+An occasional bat fluttered past us, but outside the flapping of the
+wings not a sound disturbed the stillness of the place. The silence of
+the outside was intensified a hundredfold. In the open, one heard the
+crooning of the trees as the soft winds from the Pacific played with
+their heavy foliage, but in the natural passage through which we crawled
+in search of Leith the air felt as if it had not been disturbed for
+centuries. It was heavy and thick, possessing a faint odour that seemed
+to rise from the dust beneath our feet.
+
+We had walked about one hundred yards along the corridor when it widened
+suddenly. The walls that we were following turned off at right angles,
+and from the moonlight which filtered through a dozen small fissures
+high up above our heads we saw that we had entered a cavern of vast
+proportions. We sensed its vastness. The few streaks of moonlight that
+stabbed the darkness were like so many guide-posts that enabled us to
+make a mental calculation of the height and extent of the place.
+
+We stopped and moved together instinctively. Holman put his mouth close
+to my ear.
+
+"What do you make of it?" he asked.
+
+"It might be a cavern leading into the one that runs out to the face of
+the cliff," I replied.
+
+"But how are we to cross it?"
+
+"I can't tell you. I'm afraid if we leave this opening that we'll get
+lost."
+
+It was rather plain that we would. The surrounding walls were as black
+as the opening by which we had entered the place, and we stood with
+quick-beating hearts staring out across the place through which the bars
+of moonlight appeared like silver skewers.
+
+One of these skewers fell upon a ledge of stone some few yards in front
+of the spot where we were standing, and Holman stepped toward it.
+
+"Stay where you are," he said. "If I get lost I'll whistle softly and
+you can signal back to me."
+
+He moved away and I was left standing in the opening. A bat banged
+heavily against my face, and the odour from the dusty floor irritated my
+nostrils so that I had difficulty in restraining myself from sneezing.
+
+It was about twenty minutes before Holman returned. He whistled ever so
+softly, and when I replied he came toward me hurriedly.
+
+"Just walk out to that spot of moonlight," he whispered. "I'll keep
+guard on the door. Feel around there and tell me what you think of it."
+
+I did as he directed. I walked forward to the spot and felt around with
+my hands. My fingers came in contact with round, smooth objects that
+filled every available inch of a stone table in front of me, and with a
+feeling of revulsion I hurried back to the mouth of the corridor. Holman
+gripped my arm and put a question.
+
+"Gave you a shock, eh?"
+
+"Why, they're skulls!" I breathed hoarsely.
+
+"Yes, hundreds of 'em," he said. "The place is chock full of them. This
+island must have been the burying ground of all the adjoining groups,
+and it's the atmosphere of the place that keeps the niggers away from
+it. Leith has been wise to that. The present generation of islanders
+know nothing of the things that happened here hundreds of years back,
+but they've got an inborn horror of the place, and they keep away."
+
+"Well, what are we to do?"
+
+"Wait here."
+
+"But if he doesn't come this way?"
+
+"He must," he answered. "It's the only way out, I think. We can't go
+across this wilderness, so it's safer to await developments here."
+
+We hadn't long to wait. From a point directly opposite our position, and
+at a distance that we judged to be two hundred yards away, a bobbing
+light broke into the wall of darkness and moved directly toward us.
+Holman gripped my arm and pulled me forward to the stone tables upon
+which the skulls were laid, and side by side we crouched and waited.
+
+It was the ship's lantern that Soma had carried in front of Leith that
+was now moving upon us. Its yellow light showed the parrot-feather mat
+and headdress of the big Kanaka, while the hum of voices, which drifted
+across the vast space of the cavern, informed us that the dancers who
+had assisted at the ceremony were returning with Leith and the one-eyed
+white man.
+
+Holman's breath came hot upon my cheek. There was no necessity for
+speech. I knew that he intended to seize the first opportunity to
+attack, and that opportunity was at hand. Behind the bobbing lamp that
+was approaching us by an irregular trail, as if Soma was winding in and
+out amidst stone supports similar to the one that sheltered us, was the
+brute who held us in his grip, and after the events we had witnessed it
+seemed impossible to reconcile his actions with anything that smacked of
+decency or honesty.
+
+[Illustration: "Behind the bobbing lamp was the brute who held us in
+his grip."]
+
+I attempted to drop on my knees at that minute, but the moment was
+disastrous to the ambush which we had planned. As I moved my hand
+forward I dislodged a skull that was evidently resting upon a shelf
+somewhat higher than the one before us. With a noise that appeared
+terrific in that place, the object crashed down upon the stone, and the
+bobbing lantern halted about fifteen paces in front of us.
+
+Leith broke the silence that followed. "What was that?" he asked.
+
+"A bat," answered Soma.
+
+"I don't think so," droned Leith. "Lift up the light."
+
+Soma raised the lantern high above his head, and as he did so Holman
+fired.
+
+The echoes were terrific. High in the vaulted roof of the place echoes
+answered each other with the sharp reports of Maxims, and the thick air
+shivered.
+
+Leith's voice roared an order. "Put out the light!"
+
+Soma immediately crashed the lantern upon the ground, and I heard Holman
+groan.
+
+"I missed him!" he whispered. "Move along a little, Verslun; they've got
+a line on our position."
+
+We didn't move a minute too soon. Half a dozen shots broke out from the
+spot where the light of the lantern had been suddenly quenched, and we
+fired twice and shifted ground the moment we pulled the triggers.
+
+But the opposition guessed the direction of our sidestep. A bullet
+lifted my hat into the darkness, and, as I scrambled away, a hand
+touched my thigh and was immediately taken away.
+
+I felt Holman's body on the other side, and then, clubbing the big Colt,
+I drove it down through the darkness at a point that my imagination
+suggested would be the most likely place to find the head of the
+stranger whose hand touched my thigh. The blow missed, and as I made a
+kangaroo-like jump sideways, a spurt of flame blazed out within a yard
+of my face.
+
+I fired immediately, and the soft _plop_ of a body settling into the dry
+dust upon the floor convinced me that I had settled one of our enemies.
+
+For about ten minutes after that there was no more firing. My skin, more
+than my ears, brought to my brain the information that there were others
+somewhere in the thick darkness, but the little air tremors that came to
+me were so faint that it was impossible to tell in which direction they
+were. I had lost all trace of Holman. With extreme caution I crawled
+toward what I thought to be the spot where I had left him, but my
+groping fingers found only the fragments of bone that covered the dusty
+floor of the charnel house.
+
+I sat in the dust and endeavoured to make my addled brains direct me as
+to the best course to pursue. The silence led me to infer that Leith and
+his party, who were evidently familiar with the cave, were making for
+the passage by which we had entered the place, and a cold chill passed
+over me as my imagination pictured Leith, One Eye, and the oily dancers
+waiting for Holman and me in the narrow corridor. To escape from the
+place immediately was our only chance, and with a courage born of terror
+conjured up by the thoughts of imprisonment in that place of skulls, I
+started to crawl rapidly into the dark.
+
+I had not proceeded half a dozen yards when my hand touched a bare leg,
+and I drew back hastily. With madly pounding heart I crouched in the
+dust, waiting for an attack, but as I waited I convinced myself that the
+leg had not been drawn back when my fingers encountered it. With my
+right hand clubbing my revolver, I reached my left out cautiously, and
+once again my fingers came in contact with the bare limb. The fear left
+me at that moment. I was back at the spot where I had fired at an unseen
+foe some fifteen minutes before, and the body near me was the victim of
+my lucky bullet.
+
+Carefully I felt the dead man. He wore a large feather cloak and a tall
+headdress, and I concluded that he was one of the wriggling brutes whose
+performance we had watched in the cave. In the dust, beside the body, my
+fingers found his revolver, and the fact that he had been armed at the
+moment his party came unexpectedly upon us was more proof, if proof were
+needed, that Leith's tactics were anything but straightforward.
+
+Securing the revolver, I started to crawl away, but a sudden inspiration
+came to me. I stripped the parrot-feather mat and the headdress from
+the corpse and donned them over my own clothing. In the darkness
+recognition was made through the fingers, and as there were eight
+enemies in the cavern and only one friend, I considered that the danger
+I ran of receiving a bullet from Holman was more than counterbalanced by
+the protection that the dancer's costume would give me if I ran against
+the groping hands of Leith or his gang.
+
+After a wearisome crawl I touched the wall of the cavern, and standing
+upright I debated for a moment whether I should move to the right or the
+left. I had no definite idea as to the position of the opening through
+which we had entered the place, and I dreaded the weary circuit of the
+cavern which I would be compelled to make if I turned in the wrong
+direction. It was possible that the corridor was within a few yards of
+me, and if I turned away from it I might get lost in other passages
+leading to the long gallery where the dance of death had taken place.
+
+I decided to move to the right, and with one hand upon the cold wall I
+stumbled forward. If Holman was still a prisoner, Edith Herndon and her
+sister were entirely unprotected, and my tormenting imagination made me
+throw prudence to the winds. I had to reach the camp before Leith or any
+of his evil bodyguard arrived, and, becoming reckless of the terrors of
+the dark, I ran blindly in my desperate desire to find the path into the
+open air.
+
+I cannoned into a man who was standing with his back to the wall of the
+cave, and before I could lift my arm his fingers had gripped my throat.
+For a second we struggled, then he released his grip and murmured some
+words in a dialect that I did not understand. His hand had touched the
+parrot-feather mat that I had drawn about my shoulders, and he was
+convinced that I was one of his own companions.
+
+Still holding my shoulder he pushed me a pace or two forward, and
+instinctively I knew that I was in the corridor. The faintest tremor
+disturbed the heavy air, and a wild surge of joy rushed through my
+being. The place of skulls had brought a terror upon me that swept away
+my reason, but the knowledge that I was on the way to the open, where I
+could fill my lungs with God's pure air, acted as a powerful
+restorative.
+
+As my guide's fingers slipped from my shoulder, I stood still and
+listened. His heavy breathing was distinctly audible, and with a prayer
+to Providence to guide my right hand, I brought the butt of the heavy
+revolver down through the darkness. It must have caught him squarely
+upon the crown, for he dropped without a groan.
+
+"Holman!" I shrieked. "Where are you, Holman? The passage is here! This
+way, quick!"
+
+A revolver cracked within two feet of me, and the bullet ripped through
+the tall headdress. I crouched quickly and ran along the corridor. There
+was no answering cry from Holman, and although it was possible that he
+would not disclose his whereabouts by replying to my yell, I decided
+that I could do little to help him in the impenetrable darkness.
+Besides, Edith Herndon and her sister were in danger, and the dawn was
+coming rapidly. Throwing off the parrot-feather mat, which had served me
+to such good purpose, I raced headlong toward the opening. A few bats,
+returning early to their sleeping quarters, banged against my face, but
+the way was otherwise clear, and with a cry of joy I rushed through the
+mouth of the passage into the calm, clear night.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BACK TO THE CAMP
+
+The path, with its coating of coral lime, stretched before me, and I
+fled along it. The moon had disappeared behind the hills, but the limed
+track was quite distinct. My watch had stopped, but I judged that there
+was still a good two hours before the dawn, and I ran as I had never run
+in my life. I recognized what sort of feeling I possessed for Edith
+Herndon as I raced through the lonely night, and I reproached myself
+bitterly for leaving the camp. I became convinced that Leith had set out
+for the resting place of the Professor and his two daughters after
+placing guards at the inner opening of the corridor to see that Holman
+and I did not escape from the cavern, and I realized the terror which
+the two girls would experience when the big brute reached the camp.
+
+"The devil!" I muttered. "The fiendish brute!"
+
+A chuckle came from a boulder beside the track, and Holman's cheery
+voice set my pulses beating.
+
+"You frightened the dickens out of me, Verslun," he cried. "I thought
+you were one of the evil legion. Gee! I'm glad to see you."
+
+"How did you get out?" I gasped as we rushed on together. "I thought I
+left you in the cavern."
+
+"It was a good job you didn't," he retorted. "There was a husky nigger
+at the outside entrance of the passage, and he gave me the fight of my
+life. Get off this track; they might be after us at any moment."
+
+"Do you think that Leith has made for the camp?" I asked.
+
+"I suppose he has. We must move as fast as we can, Verslun. If he
+reaches there before us we'll deserve any fate that will come to us. We
+shouldn't have left them."
+
+The utterance of the conviction that had come to both of us brought a
+silence, and we rushed across the boulder-strewn ground that we had
+crossed earlier in the night. We felt certain that Leith knew of a surer
+and safer path back to the camp, but it was useless for us to hunt for a
+new trail at that moment. We would have to find our way down the nearly
+perpendicular wall up which we had climbed after leaving the crevice
+through which we had viewed the death dance, and, to me at least, the
+recollections of that path brought feelings that were by no means
+pleasant. But Leith was making toward the camp, and the horrible
+thoughts aroused by the spectacle which we had witnessed in the early
+night muzzled the thrills which the dangers of the climb sent through
+our bodies. The dance had terrified the Fijian by arousing thoughts of
+the deeds that would happen in its wake, and Kaipi's terror became a
+gauge for us to measure its dread significance.
+
+We reached the cliffs and ran up and down the ledge in a vain search for
+the spot where we had clawed our way to the top. Not that we thought the
+finding of the place would solve the problem of the descent. It was hard
+to conceive of a more difficult way than the one by which we had come,
+and as if he had suddenly come to the conclusion that any other path
+would be preferable, Holman dropped upon his knees and lowered himself
+upon a ledge that was immediately below.
+
+"Come on, Verslun!" he cried, in a choked voice that was altogether
+different from his cheery tones. "If there is no path we must roll down.
+There's the first flush of the dawn!"
+
+I looked toward the east and groaned. The faint grayish tint unnerved
+me. Although it was possible that Leith had already reached the camp,
+still we had promised the two girls that we would return by daylight,
+and although we had a hazy notion as to what we would do when we did
+reach their side, the longing to get there made us oblivious of danger.
+I swung down on to the crumbling foothold that supported Holman, and
+breathlessly we began to scramble toward the valley.
+
+It was a mad climb. Holman exhibited a temerity that bordered on
+insanity. With reckless daring he scrambled down upon dangerous niches
+that jutted out upon the face of the cliff, and my repeated warnings
+fell upon deaf ears. A task that would have appeared impossible when
+viewed in daylight, lost half of its terrors because we only vaguely
+apprehended the dangers that threatened us when a layer of shale
+crumbled beneath our feet. Our descent became a wild toboggan. Slipping
+and sliding, clutching wildly at every little projection that would
+decrease the speed at which we were travelling, we rolled with bruised
+and bleeding bodies on to a small platform, and lay half stunned for a
+moment, as a thousand pieces of rock, dislodged by our bodies, bounced
+past us into the valley.
+
+Holman picked himself up and looked around. The pink flush had deepened
+in the east, and nearby objects were discernible.
+
+"By all the gods! we are back on the ledge near the crevice!" he cried.
+"Come along and we'll hunt for Kaipi."
+
+It was wonderful how we had pulled up in our slide near the place where
+we had witnessed the performance that prompted us to make the ascent.
+But there was no mistake about the spot. As we crawled along the
+platform we found that we had landed not more than twenty feet from the
+crevice through which we had witnessed the blood-curdling "tivo," and we
+hurried toward the spot where we had left the Fijian, whose nerves had
+been upset by the glimpse he had had of the strange antics of the
+dancers.
+
+But Kaipi was not at the spot where we had left him. Whether his fears
+had increased to such an extent that they had forced him to leave the
+place, or whether he had come to the conclusion that we had returned to
+the camp by some other route, we could not determine; so wasting no time
+on useless conjecture we hurried toward the big maupei tree up which we
+had climbed to reach the ledge.
+
+But Holman's hurry proved disastrous. He had escaped the dangers of the
+cliff descent to meet an accident when he had sufficient light to see
+what he was about. In reaching for the limb of the tree that threshed
+against the cliff, he lost his footing, and before I could grip him he
+went crashing through the foliage to the ground, some fifty feet below!
+
+I thought that I was an hour descending that tree, but I could not have
+been more than three minutes if my skinned legs could be relied upon as
+evidence of speed. I found Holman in a thorny tangle, and as I dragged
+him into the open he groaned loudly and endeavoured to get upon his
+feet.
+
+"Are you hurt?" I questioned.
+
+"No, no!" he cried. "I'm not hurt, Verslun. Get me on my feet, man.
+Quick! For the love of God, quick!"
+
+I gripped his shoulders and he managed to stand upright. The dawn came
+with tropic suddenness at that moment, and I saw that he was bleeding
+from a nasty wound above the right temple, while he limped painfully as
+I helped him across a small cleared patch near the tree.
+
+"I've hurt my leg," he cried, "but I'm going to get to the camp. If I
+fall, Verslun, I want you to lend me a hand. Promise to help me, will
+you? She--Miss Barbara, you know, old man. She is everything to me. Give
+me a hand if I tumble down."
+
+"I promise," I answered, and he wrung my hand as we started off through
+the clawing, scratching vines that tripped us up as we tried to fight
+our way forward.
+
+If we had thought on the night before that the quarter mile of country
+that lay between the camp and the rocky wall was a difficult stretch to
+negotiate, we were more than doubly certain of its impenetrable
+character now that daylight had come. How we had ever managed to get
+through it in the darkness was a mystery that we tried to solve as we
+attempted to make our way back. The place was a mad riot of thorny
+undergrowth, laced and bound with vines that were as strong as wire
+hawsers. The lianas appeared human to us; they lassoed our legs and
+flung us sprawling upon our faces whenever we tried to quicken our
+speed. Thorns of a strange fishhook variety drove their barbed points
+into us, and each yard of the tortuous path that we cut through the
+devilish vines was marked by a scrap of our clothing, which the
+tormenting thorns seemed to wave aloft as an emblem of victory.
+
+"He'll beat us!" gasped Holman. "I'm all in, Verslun; that fall has
+finished me."
+
+"Keep at it!" I said. "We must be near the camp by now."
+
+"We've walked three miles," muttered Holman. "We've lost our way."
+
+"No, we haven't!" I cried. "We've struck a bad patch, but we'll get
+there soon."
+
+The youngster clenched his teeth and endeavoured to forget the agony of
+his leg, but the effort taxed his courage.
+
+"We'll do it," I said. "Don't let the brute beat us."
+
+"I--I won't!" he stammered. "If it was anything but my leg! Verslun!"
+
+He fell on his face, and I helped him up, but once again he collapsed.
+The injured limb made it impossible for him to stand or even crawl.
+
+"You get ahead," he cried hoarsely. "Leave me, Verslun! Leave me here!"
+
+"But I'd never find you again," I protested.
+
+"Yes, you would! I'll crawl out after a few hours' rest. Run to the
+camp, and shoot--shoot the devil the moment you put your eyes on him!"
+
+I took a quick glance at the matted walls of the green creepers that
+hedged us in on all sides. Holman was in the last stages of exhaustion,
+and I reasoned quickly. If I left him in the middle of the thorny tangle
+that encompassed us, it would be utterly impossible for me to find him
+again, and he would probably perish from thirst. If I rushed away I
+would be leaving him to certain death, and although our prospects of
+leaving the island alive did not look too bright at that moment, I
+considered that I would be making his demise a certainty by leaving him
+in the maze.
+
+I stopped, gripped him round the waist, and with a great effort managed
+to lift him upon my shoulder. Holman's actions did not help me as I
+struggled beneath him. He kicked like a madman when he understood what
+I intended to do, but I held him in spite of his protests.
+
+"Leave me here!" he screamed. "Go ahead by yourself, Verslun! What's the
+use of taking me?"
+
+"You're coming, so you can stop kicking," I muttered. "Take your fingers
+out of my eyes."
+
+But Holman's struggles ceased then, and his head fell backward. The pain
+of his leg had made the plucky youngster swoon away, and with a prayer
+upon my lips I sprang again at the bulwark of vicious creepers.
+
+I have a very vague recollection of the remainder of that trip. In my
+subconscious mind I have memories of an insane struggle with a jungle
+that was alive, of a fight with thorny creepers that pursued us. I
+became convinced that those vines were alive, because the same thorns
+that we had passed hours before rose up again in our path and waved the
+scraps of bloody clothing that they had torn from Holman and myself.
+
+At last, half insane with anxiety for the safety of the girls and our
+own struggles, we staggered blindly into the patch of cleared land upon
+which the camp had been pitched on the previous evening. It was
+impossible to mistake the site. The embers of the big fire were still
+smoking and we stared with sweat-blinded eyes at the place where the
+girls' tent had been standing when we rushed off with Kaipi to
+investigate the light in the hills. But there was no trace of the girls
+or the Professor. Leith had got ahead of us, and the big brute had
+rushed the crazy scientist and his two daughters toward the hills that
+stood up black and defiant above the sea of green vegetation.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A DAY OF SKIRMISHING
+
+We lay for a few moments upon the soft grass, then Holman crawled on
+hand and knees to the little spring of cold water and bathed the wound
+upon his temple and his injured leg. The water revived him, and after a
+brief rest he got to his feet and stared at the festooned trees that
+surrounded the spot.
+
+"I'm ready, Verslun," he muttered. "Which way did they go?"
+
+I pointed to the marks made in the soft ground by the shoes of the two
+girls, and Holman limped forward.
+
+"But we can't follow this fashion," I protested.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"We'll be shot down before we get within half a mile of them. Leith
+cannot know that we have escaped from the cavern or he would have left
+some one here to interview us."
+
+"Well, we can't do any high-class tracking in this country," said the
+youngster grimly. "If we stray six feet from the trail we are lost. We
+had better trust to fortune and go ahead."
+
+It was impossible to do anything else. The route by which the carriers
+had marched from the camping ground was perfectly clear while we
+followed their footsteps, but if we diverged ever so slightly the thick
+veils of verdure hid the path from our eyes. To follow the party we
+would have to hold to the trail and take the chances of an ambush which
+Leith would certainly prepare for us the moment he knew we had escaped
+from the Cavern of Skulls. It would be easy for him to set his one-eyed
+white partner to shoot us down as we staggered along the trail which
+Soma or one of the carriers had blazed with an axe.
+
+"They cannot have more than three hours' start of us," cried Holman.
+"Give me your arm, Verslun. Now let us move as fast as we can."
+
+"But this is puerile," I protested. "We'll be running our heads into the
+noose."
+
+"I don't care if we do. I want to get near Leith."
+
+"But we'll never get near by running after him in this fashion. If we
+could find some way to get in front of him and wait."
+
+"But what will happen to the girls?"
+
+"Will our death prevent it?" I snapped. "If we rush after him in the
+open we'll throw our chances away."
+
+I am a sailor, absolutely ignorant of jungle knowledge, but I had sense
+enough to know that Leith would not leave his rear exposed for a moment
+after he had received word from the cave. I tried to recall stories of
+extraordinary trailing feats as we stumbled forward, but I became
+convinced that all the marvellous performances I had ever read of had
+been accomplished under conditions that were altogether different from
+those that confronted us upon the Isle of Tears. An open piece of
+country would have been a sight of joy to our eyes that were weary of
+the everlasting mesh of green which encompassed us like the tentacles of
+a malignant fate. The green, sweaty leaves, the fat, bloated pods, and
+the lengths of pythonesque runners produced a mental nausea. The
+vegetation appeared to us to be vicious. Its very luxuriance produced
+that fear of the wild which grips one in tropical countries but which is
+never felt in lands situated in the temperate zones.
+
+We had not covered a hundred yards of the path when Holman pounced upon
+a strip of white bark that waved to us from the thorn of a lawyer-vine
+crossing the track. A few pencilled words covered the smooth side of the
+strip, and we absorbed them in a single glance.
+
+"'We're prisoners now,' muttered Holman, reading the few words in a
+whisper. 'The brute has declared himself. Barbara.'"
+
+The boy turned to me, his face all blood-smeared and haggard, and for a
+moment we stared at the strip of bark. There had been no doubt in our
+minds concerning Leith's intentions from the time that Kaipi brought us
+the message which Soma had dropped, but the knowledge that the brute had
+declared himself to the Professor and the two girls brought us a most
+horrible feeling. In my own case I had never experienced such a
+sensation. The strange rites connected with the "tivo" in the long cave
+had laid a foundation upon which my imagination piled skyscrapers of
+horror. If I could have fixed my mind upon a definite fate that would be
+theirs if they were not rescued from the big brute's clutches, I would
+have found relief, but my inability to do that left me a victim to
+thoughts that were enough to deprive one of his reason. We looked upon
+the island as the ceremonial place for rites that were stamped out in
+the groups where the missionary had pushed himself, and the message from
+Barbara Herndon became a mental piledriver to ram home a thousand
+doubts that had obtained a footing in our minds.
+
+"Come on!" cried Holman. "If we don't catch up with him I'll go mad!"
+
+He turned to hurry along the narrow path, but out of the silence behind
+us came a shout that caused us to dive promptly into the bushes. The
+whoop came from the direction of the camping ground, and we had hardly
+crouched in the undergrowth when a nude native crashed through the vines
+and raced past our hiding place. He was followed by two more, the three
+running at top speed, heads forward, and their chests heaving in a
+manner that suggested they had come some distance.
+
+In the glimpse we caught of them as they dashed past we came to the
+conclusion that they were three of the "tivo" dancers, and as we watched
+their bare brown backs disappear in the creepers we observed something
+which our position on the previous evening had prevented us from seeing.
+The backs of the three were tattooed, not with the common line
+tattooing, but with short scars that ran down the spine, making a ridged
+representation of a centipede, and as they passed I remembered that the
+Professor, when taking a photograph of the stone table on the previous
+morning, had commented on the same peculiar pattern which he had
+discovered upon one of the huge supporting pillars.
+
+"They've come to tell Leith that we have escaped," whispered Holman.
+
+"And they'll be on our trail the moment they give him the news."
+
+"All right, we'll be ready for them. How much ammunition have you?
+
+"Three cartridges," I replied.
+
+"And I have four. We must make those seven--look out! There's another
+beggar coming!"
+
+We dropped quickly out of sight and peered through the leaves. Holman
+was right. Some one else was coming along the path, but the newcomer was
+exercising much more prudence than the three dancers. Judging by the
+little intervals of silence that followed the slight noises made by the
+breaking of twigs, he was investigating each yard of the way.
+
+A woolly head at last appeared through the network, and our nerves
+relaxed at the big brown eyes that rolled fearfully. The timorous
+stranger was Kaipi!
+
+The Fijian was shaking with fear when we dragged him into the bushes. In
+halting words he told the story of his experiences of the night, and
+Holman and I listened. Kaipi had waited upon the ledge till a few hours
+before the dawn, and then he had made for the camp. With much better
+luck than we had struck, he reached there before daylight, but fearful
+of the happenings which would follow in the wake of the devil dance, he
+had taken up a post of observation in a neighbouring tree and awaited
+events.
+
+Leith, according to the Fijian, had arrived at dawn, accompanied by Soma
+and the one-eyed white man, and the big brute had immediately
+interviewed the Professor. Kaipi's actions, as he mimicked the elderly
+scientist, convinced us that the interview was not pleasant to the
+archaeologist, and it was evident that it was at that moment Leith had
+declared himself as Barbara Herndon stated in her note.
+
+"He kick up plentee big row," explained Kaipi. "He kick porter men an'
+make damn big noise outside missee tent. They come out speakee him, he
+slap big missee in face, drive 'em off."
+
+Holman was crashing through the bushes before Kaipi had finished his
+recital, and I followed him, with the excited Fijian bringing up the
+rear. Leith was rushing the Professor and his daughters toward the black
+hills and we had to do something immediately.
+
+For over an hour we stumbled along the track, making no effort to keep
+under cover in case Leith should have prepared an ambush. It was useless
+to argue with Holman, and my own feelings were such that I preferred to
+take the risks of the route which Soma's axe had cut, to the delays
+which the task of forcing our own passage through the labyrinth would
+bring upon us. Prudence was thrust into the background by the intense
+hate we entertained for the devil who had entrapped us.
+
+It was near midday when our pursuit met with an interruption. A revolver
+cracked in a clump of wild ginger directly in front, and we took cover
+immediately. The bullet had whizzed close to Holman's head, and as we
+lay panting in the ribbon-grass we congratulated ourselves on the fact
+that we had been met with a single shot instead of a volley. We had
+taken a big chance and had come off lucky. It was impossible for Leith's
+party to be very far ahead, and as we watched the ginger clump we
+wondered how we could circumvent the sharpshooter.
+
+After about five minutes of absolute quiet Kaipi turned his head and
+pointed to the rear, and Holman and I listened intently. The Fijian's
+sharper ears had detected slight sounds behind us, and as we strained
+the silence we came to the conclusion that the enemy had stealthily
+worked their way around us, and were now creeping like snakes through
+the maze with the hope that they would take us unawares.
+
+We started to worm our way to the right, and our hatred of the infernal
+island, where we were reduced to the condition of burrowing moles,
+increased. Our eyes were practically useless. We had to depend upon
+hearing alone, and when a white man pits his ears against those of a
+native he finds that he has been suffering from partial deafness without
+being aware of the fact. A dozen times we shifted ground on a signal
+from Kaipi, whose head was continually to the earth, and that game of
+hide and seek drove us frantic. Leith was hurrying toward the hills
+while we were crawling backward and forward through the undergrowth to
+escape a few natives who pursued their tactics with a persistency that
+was maddening. The fact that the pursuers had the advantage put a raw
+edge upon our tempers, and after an hour spent upon hands and knees
+Holman resolutely refused to shift his ground in response to Kaipi's
+signals. I was just as tired of the wormlike attitude that we were
+compelled to adopt, and I waited beside Holman while the Fijian slipped
+away through the creepers after warning us by many eloquent signals that
+one of the search party was creeping toward us.
+
+Holman had a "let-'em-all-come" expression upon his face that would have
+been amusing at any other time, and kneeling with our backs to each
+other we endeavoured to peer through the leafage to get a glimpse of the
+foe.
+
+We remained like that for about ten minutes; then our attention was
+attracted to a point about eighteen inches to the right. The dry leaves
+were pushed quietly aside, but instead of a head appearing, as we
+expected, a bare brown leg was thrust through the creepers and remained
+stationary.
+
+The leg fascinated us. Kaipi had moved in the opposite direction, and we
+were certain that the limb belonged to one of our enemies. The naked
+savage was worming his way upon his stomach, and the position
+immediately brought to our minds a picture of the scene in the long
+gallery. When it came to a game of this sort we would be hopelessly
+outclassed by a batch that, through assiduous training, slipped along
+with the ease of serpents.
+
+Holman held his revolver in readiness and watched the leg. It was
+difficult to judge the position of the native's body, and the scarcity
+of ammunition made us hesitate before firing a shot. The leg was pushed
+farther out of the leafy tangle, and as it came toward him a change
+passed over Holman's face. He handed his revolver to me, crouched on his
+thighs and sprang!
+
+There was something primitive about the action, something which caused
+my heart to throb as I watched him take the pantherlike spring. On the
+previous evening the youngster had expressed a desire to throttle Leith,
+and the same desire had gripped him when he watched the leg come through
+the vines. The devilishness of the batch made shooting a tame way of
+obtaining revenge, and I possessed the same itchiness of the fingers
+which had prompted Holman to take the wild leap. There was a joy in
+throttling such a brute, and I delighted in the grit of the boy.
+
+The affair was dramatic in its swift and silent ending. The native,
+taken entirely unawares, had no chance against the angry antagonist who
+had landed upon his back. A faint gurgle proved to me that Holman's
+fingers had found the neck of the other, and in an incredible short time
+the struggle was over.
+
+We parted the bushes and examined the body. It was one of the three nude
+natives that had rushed by us on the trail a few hours before, and he
+clasped in his right hand a long knife of New Zealand greenstone that
+had been inlaid with gold in an intricate design. We had never seen such
+a weapon. The crude knives that I had seen throughout the islands were
+not to be compared to the wonderfully polished blade that had been
+intended to free either Holman or myself from all earthly cares, while
+the metalwork showed a craftmanship that made one wonder how many
+centuries had elapsed since the Polynesian artist who had fashioned the
+weapon had been laid in the Cavern of Skulls. The sinnet work and the
+parquetry of split bamboo, which comprise the highest handicraft of the
+present-day islander, could hardly be classed with the exceedingly
+beautiful work upon the blade.
+
+Holman turned up the end of the haft, pointed to a delicate design of a
+centipede, and then looked down at the back of the savage upon the
+ground. The similarity of the two designs was immediately apparent, but
+while the one on the greenstone had been executed by an artist, the
+figure upon the back of the dancer was a crude example of scar-tattooing
+that required some imagination to puzzle out what object it was supposed
+to represent. As we glanced at each other the significance of the
+serpentlike dance, the marks upon the bodies of the dancers and on the
+knife and stone table, was plainly evident. The island was sacred to the
+centipede, and in some way Leith had made himself a chief wizard amongst
+the few savages who still performed the rites which had once made the
+Isle of Tears a place of particular importance to the surrounding
+groups.
+
+Holman took the long greenstone knife, and we crept quietly away in the
+direction taken by Kaipi. We had one enemy less upon the island. Not
+counting the carriers, we reckoned that the active opposition comprised
+Leith, Soma, the one-eyed white man, and either two or three of the
+"tivo" dancers, and these made a formidable batch. The dancers were huge
+natives, possessing all the characteristics of the Tongans, while Leith,
+Soma, and the one-eyed white man possessed more than ordinary strength.
+
+"We must try to find the path," whispered Holman. "This delay will give
+Leith a chance to get to the hills."
+
+But the finding of the path was no easy matter. So that we would be well
+out of the sphere of the companions of the man who carried the
+greenstone blade, we worked our way for about one hundred yards through
+the leafy maze before attempting to search for it, and that search
+proved a long and tiresome one. It is impossible to describe the network
+of wanton vegetation through which we struggled during the hot
+afternoon. Every kind of shrub and tree was woven into an ungodly tangle
+by the crawling, leaping vines that shut out the sky and made it
+impossible to see a person standing only a few feet away.
+
+We stayed our appetites with wild guavas and yams, and moved slowly
+forward in the direction that we surmised that Leith was moving in. Our
+inability to find the path left us the only alternative of pushing on
+toward the hills in the hope that we would intercept the party before it
+reached the caverns which made the basalt cliffs a secure hiding place.
+Once the arch villain reached the caves it would be a difficult matter
+to locate him, and we damned the crazy brain of the Professor as we
+thought of the lonely position of the Isle of Tears. If the captain of
+_The Waif_ was in league with Leith it would be absolutely impossible to
+obtain help to rescue the girls and their father, and we would be
+marooned upon the island for an indefinite period.
+
+It was within a few minutes of sunset when our despondency was suddenly
+swept away. The silence of the jungle was disturbed by a shrill voice
+that protested loudly against something which the owner was called upon
+to do, and our hearts punched our ribs with mighty blows as we crawled
+forward. The voice belonged to Professor Clinton Herndon of California.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE STONE TABLE
+
+Our feelings can hardly be described as we crept closer to the spot from
+which the scientist's angry protest had gone up through the silence like
+a thin wire. The loneliness of that day had been appalling. I know that
+Edith Herndon's quiet face was continually before my mental vision,
+while Holman's actions convinced me that he was suffering acutely. If we
+were certain that Leith intended to do no wrong to the party, the fact
+that he was within speaking distance of the two girls was particularly
+distressing after the knowledge we had gained in the night. With extreme
+caution we wormed our way forward, the Professor's piping voice acting
+as a verbal signpost in helping us to locate the spot where he was
+engaged in holding the argument. We were close enough to hear his words,
+and our nerves were on the highest tension as he shrieked a defiance
+against some person near. We had only one thought as to who that person
+could be. The Professor was piling charges of treachery upon the head of
+a listener, and there was only one head on the Isle of Tears that
+contained enough villainy to make the charges possible!
+
+"I will not sign the papers!" cried the scientist. "I want my liberty,
+sir! You are a scoundrel! Where are my daughters?"
+
+Holman, creeping a few inches in front, had drawn his revolver. The
+blood pounded madly; through my brain. We were within a few yards of
+Leith, and even as we moved snakily forward, the heavy bass voice of the
+scoundrel came to our ears.
+
+"You stupid old fool!" he growled. "You can demand all day and all night
+if it does you any good. Do you know who I am?"
+
+"I know you are a ruffian!" snapped the Professor. "I know you are a
+rogue who has no respect for his word and honour. I know you are a
+coward who insults women!"
+
+"Go on," mocked Leith.
+
+"I've been a fool!" cried the old man. "I was blinded to everything
+through my love of science. Now I know that you lied. I know you brought
+me here to rob me and insult my daughters."
+
+The sun had set, and the twilight made it difficult for us to locate the
+two men. But we were close. When Leith spoke again, his voice sounded
+so near that I started involuntarily, while Holman, resting upon one
+hand, parted the branches with the barrel of the revolver which he
+gripped in the other.
+
+"But you will admit when all is over that I have shown you some
+wonderful things," sneered Leith.
+
+The Professor was silent a moment, as if endeavouring to fathom the
+meaning of the words, and we moved a few inches closer in the little
+interval.
+
+"How?" asked the scientist.
+
+Holman's hand that gripped the revolver remained motionless. Through a
+rift in the leafy curtain I caught a glimpse of a bulk that was within a
+yard of our hiding place, and I knew that the youngster was waiting for
+the brute to speak to make certain that he was covering the right man.
+The silence was nerve-destroying.
+
+"Why," said Leith, speaking slowly and distinctly, "you are in the hands
+of the Wizards of the Centipede. I am their head, and if you are not
+extremely lucky you will make a sacrifice to--"
+
+Something fell upon my head with tremendous force at that moment, but as
+the blow descended Holman fired, and even as I fought to escape the grip
+of the strong fingers that twined themselves around my neck, I realized
+with a great wave of happiness that the bulk in front of me had pitched
+forward when the shot had shattered the silence.
+
+In a wild bedlam of oaths and shouts we fought and struggled. The "tivo"
+dancers had followed upon our track through the long afternoon, and the
+time that we had lost in locating Leith had given them an opportunity to
+come up with us. In the gloom we threshed backward and forward, but our
+efforts to escape were vain. The one-eyed white man appeared
+mysteriously out of the shadows to help the huge natives, and in three
+minutes Holman and I were tied hand and foot and stretched out near the
+unfortunate Professor, who, with bound limbs, was sitting up in the
+centre of the grassy clearing where Leith and he had been exchanging
+personalities. There were no signs of the girls, and I wondered, as my
+brain recovered from the effects of the blow, what had happened to them.
+
+Holman's voice put a question that roused me from my half stupor.
+
+"Did I kill him?" cried the young fellow. "Tell me!"
+
+The question was answered by a stream of blasphemy that came from Leith
+himself. The big ruffian had fallen into a bunch of ribbon-grass, but
+now, with the assistance of One Eye, he got to his feet and staggered
+toward us. From the actions of his white partner, I surmised that
+Holman's bullet had struck him in the left shoulder, and the surmise
+proved true. The attack of the dancers had jerked the youngster's arm,
+and the wound was twelve inches above the point that Holman had aimed
+at.
+
+With One Eye and the three dancers holding him upon his feet, and the
+blood dripping from the wound, he kicked us furiously, howling
+unspeakable imprecations as he drove his heavy boots against our ribs.
+We had met the real Leith at last. The devilishness that we had sensed
+behind the lustreless eyes blazed forth in full fury, and to me,
+familiar as I was with all the weird and wonderful curse phraseology
+used by the skippers and mates of the island boats, his anathemas
+impressed me as being the most blood curdling oaths that had ever come
+to my ears. The man was a devil at that minute. His tremendous strength
+made the restraining efforts of the other four useless, and we were in
+danger of being kicked to death if a merciful interruption had not
+stopped him. The horrified Professor, who was sitting upright during the
+exhibition of brutality, lifted up his voice in protest, and his shrill
+denunciations brought a cry out of the surrounding gloom.
+
+"Father! father! Where are you, father?"
+
+It was Edith Herndon's voice, and the note of agony in the words
+maddened me. I drove my teeth into Leith's left leg as he stood quiet
+for a second near my head, and the brute used the sole of his right
+boot to loosen my grip. There were no gentle ways about the devil. As
+Edith's cry was repeated, he had administered a farewell kick to Holman
+and me, and shouted an order in the same strange dialect which the
+dancer had used in addressing me in the Cavern of the Skulls when the
+robe of parrot feathers had saved my life. The three natives immediately
+gripped us by the heels and we were dragged off into the bushes.
+
+It seemed to me that Edith Herndon's cry was repeated again and again as
+the natives dragged me at a jog trot through the undergrowth. There was
+untold anguish in the cry. It was plain that Leith had taken the
+unfortunate old Professor some distance from his daughters so that they
+could not listen to the conversation, and the scientist's high-pitched
+protests against our maltreatment had caused the terror-stricken girls
+to think that Leith was ill-using their father. I imagined that the big
+ruffian had rushed us away from the spot lest the two women would escape
+from Soma and run to the assistance of their father, but I know that we
+were thankful that the interruption put an end to the football tactics
+in which the infuriated devil was indulging.
+
+But we had escaped from the frying pan to find ourselves in the flames.
+The three dancers felt that the Fates had given them a chance to avenge
+their friend, and they took full advantage of the opportunity. So that
+each would have a proper share in the burden, they placed us side by
+side, strapped our ankles together, and then, passing a rope through the
+straps, the three laid hold of it and set off through the night, towing
+us behind with an absolute disregard for our feelings. They entered into
+the fun of the thing. No Norwegian peasant ever towed home a Yule log
+with a greater exhibition of joy than those savages displayed as they
+hauled us through the thickets. They had a contempt for open places.
+They chose the most intricate paths they could find, and if a tough
+liana gripped Holman or me around the throat, the fiends found great fun
+in straining upon the rope till the wire-like creepers gave way.
+
+We suffered unbearable torture. Hour after hour we were jerked over the
+ground. Our clothes were stripped from our backs, our faces were torn
+and bloody from the thorns, and our tormented flesh protested through
+every nerve against the treatment. Once Holman put a question in a
+hoarse whisper.
+
+"Where are they taking us?" he asked.
+
+"God knows," I gasped.
+
+"It's my fault, Verslun."
+
+"Why?" I groaned.
+
+"I missed him! I missed him! I----"
+
+His voice died away in a choking sob, and I imagine he swooned away. As
+we were being towed by the legs, I guessed that Holman was suffering
+excruciating pain from the limb that he had injured by the fall from the
+maupei tree, and the lapse into unconsciousness came as a blessed
+relief. To me the rush through the jungle seemed a superlative
+nightmare. My mind played tricks with me. I thought that the three black
+forms, leaping along in front, were a trinity of devils who were ordered
+to torture me for my stupidity in allowing Edith Herndon and her sister
+to leave the yacht. Every creeper became a whip wielded by a mocking
+phantom, and I am forced to confess that I have a vivid recollection of
+crying to heaven for pardon for my criminal negligence. Every horror
+that the happenings of the previous forty-eight hours had germinated
+within my brain sprang into lusty being as my mind trembled upon the
+abyss of insanity, and Edith Herndon was the person that the legion of
+horrors threatened.
+
+I came to my proper senses to find that our towing trinity had called a
+halt. Holman was repeating a question over and over again, and I
+endeavoured to moisten my dry throat so that I could answer.
+
+"Where are we?" he groaned. "Where are we? Are you dead, Verslun? Open
+your eyes and take a look around; my peepers are bunged up."
+
+I managed to open my eyes, but I could see nothing but the encompassing
+jungle. For a few minutes I thought that we were alone. Then I made out
+the three figures crouched in front of us upon the grass. Their heads
+were turned away from us, and they were facing the east, where the faint
+luminous glow of the rising moon was just beginning to appear in the
+sky.
+
+The three were motionless. They were squatting upon their hams, and
+their attitude seemed uncanny when I compared it with the mad film of
+action which my mental machinery had recorded during the preceding
+hours. They had stopped for some purpose, but that purpose I could not
+determine.
+
+"Are they there?" asked Holman.
+
+"Yes," I murmured.
+
+"What are they doing?"
+
+"Sitting in a line staring at the hills."
+
+The youngster gave a grunt, turned his head till he managed to wipe the
+mud and blood from his eyes upon my shoulder, then he peered at the
+silent three. Their motionless forms fascinated him. It was hard to
+connect them with the three bounding devils who had brought us on a
+gallop that was more painful than the bareback ride which the Polish
+nobleman gave to the intriguing Mazeppa.
+
+"What do you make of it?" he whispered.
+
+"They're resting perhaps."
+
+"Not them! They look as if they're hatching some new villainy."
+
+Minute after minute crept by, but the three remained inactive. They took
+no notice of our whispered conversation. No Hindu Yogis ever sat
+meditating with the absolute immovability of the three, and as our
+wounds stiffened under the cold night air, we became foolishly angry at
+the wait. If we had to meet death, it would please us to get it over as
+soon as possible.
+
+"If I could have one more fling at them." groaned Holman. "By all that's
+holy, Verslun, I feel that I could fight a million if these ropes were
+off me."
+
+He endeavoured to get his face down to the bandages on my wrists, but we
+had been strapped in such a manner that it was impossible to reach any
+of the ropes with our teeth, so we lay quiet and reviewed the legion of
+tormenting thoughts that marched through our minds. The jungle, like the
+three natives, seemed to be waiting for a happening. The silence was
+more horrible than the thunder of an earthquake. It seemed to well out
+from the silent three, till we longed with a great longing for some
+terrific and prolonged noise to shiver it and send battalions of echoes
+to chase it into the hills.
+
+The moon peered above the black cliffs, and the surroundings became more
+distinct. We were on the edge of a clearing, and there was something
+vaguely familiar about the trees that our cramped position allowed us
+to see. We felt certain that we had passed this place on our journey
+from the yacht, and each minute that passed strengthened the conviction.
+
+"Seems to me that I've seen that tree before," muttered Holman.
+
+"I hold the same impression," I said.
+
+"And those rocks," remarked the youngster. "Why, we're going back to
+_The Waif!_"
+
+The three natives rose together at that moment and gripped the rope. We
+gave a joint groan of agony as our stiffened limbs were jerked forward,
+and as we were pulled from the fringe of reed-like grass our exact
+whereabouts were made known to us. Standing up against the moon, the rim
+of the orb showing just above the massive top, was the great stone table
+that Holman and I had climbed two nights before!
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BENEATH THE CENTIPEDE
+
+The natives moved at a slow walk across the clearing, and for this
+little indulgence we were exceedingly thankful. There was no grass
+covering upon the bed of coral rock in the middle of which the singular
+structure stood, and our bleeding bodies could have hardly stood a swift
+gallop across the prickly surface. As it was we were immensely glad when
+the trinity halted in front of the edifice.
+
+"Say," murmured Holman, "do you remember what the Professor said about
+this place the other night when he was speaking about sacrificial
+altars?"
+
+I groaned as an intimation that the subject was not a pleasant one, but
+Holman wanted to make public admission that he had exhibited gross
+ignorance in ridiculing the Professor's assertions.
+
+"I thought he was handing it out too strong, Verslun," he murmured, "but
+it strikes me now that he had the right dope about this infernal thing.
+I believe they're going to settle us."
+
+I groaned again. Holman's airy manner of discussing our predicament
+annoyed me. I hated the Professor for making the remarks about
+sacrificial stones when he drew comparisons between the table and Aztec
+altars, because I now thought that the very fear planted within my brain
+would carry a thought suggestion to the three devils who had us
+prisoners. Under ordinary circumstances I am not deficient in physical
+courage, but our position in front of the strange monument on the Isle
+of Tears left me with the valour of a jack-rabbit. The terror generated
+by the surroundings bit into my system like an acid.
+
+"What I'm wondering at," continued Holman, "is about that guy that we
+saw on the top of the place. How he got away was a mystery."
+
+"It was," I replied. I didn't feel disposed to trust myself to make a
+longer comment at that moment.
+
+"Well, they're going to start operations," said the youngster. "We're
+going to the top, Verslun."
+
+It was plain that we were. Two of the natives had shinned up one of the
+pillars by means of small notches in one corner, and now the other cut
+the bands that tied us together, promptly attached Holman's feet to the
+rope his comrades lowered, and signalled that all was ready by clapping
+his hands. The youngster was quickly jerked upward, and in a few minutes
+I was beside him on the moss-grown sloping surface of the immense stone.
+
+The three dancers were evidently impressed with the importance of the
+work they had in hand. Their movements on the stone became more
+dignified and solemn. They moved around us in a manner that would have
+provoked laughter at any other time, and we watched eagerly for
+developments.
+
+With much care they placed us side by side on the upper part of the
+stone, but Holman's feet were turned to my head, and as we were placed
+crosswise upon the inclined surface, my body was a few inches lower than
+his. That we were to be sacrificed appeared to be a certainty at that
+moment, but the method by which we were to be sent into eternity puzzled
+us. Not one of the three had a weapon. The surface of the stone was as
+bare as it was upon the night that we had investigated it, and we began
+to think that death by starvation and thirst would probably be our fate.
+
+But thoughts of such an ending were soon put aside. Two of the savages
+slipped from the stone while the other dropped upon his stomach and hid
+his face. That something was going to happen we felt certain, but we
+could not discover the slightest clue that would guide our puzzled wits
+to a solution. We expected death, but we could not guess in what manner
+the job was to be performed.
+
+"Looks as if something is coming, Verslun," cried Holman. "I was a fool
+to miss him, old man, but I guess--oh, Gee!"
+
+The final exclamation was caused by a happening immediately beside us. A
+section of the moss-grown stone, about eight feet long and eighteen
+inches in width, started to rise slowly, and when our astonished eyes
+fell upon it we knew that we had the solution of the strange appearance
+of the figure upon the table on the night we camped in its shadow.
+Holman had seen this movable slab rise above the top of the table, but
+it had returned to its groove before we had climbed the tree, and it had
+fitted so closely into its moss-grown bed that we had been unable to
+detect a crevice in the moonlight. We had been on the verge of a
+discovery, but as we recalled the incident, lying there helpless, we
+were doubtful if it would have saved us from the fate we expected. The
+note which Soma had dropped gave full confirmation to all our suspicions
+concerning Leith, yet we had been unable to hold our own against him.
+
+One end of the slab remained stationary after it had risen a few inches
+from its bed, but the other end, which was nearest us, went up and up,
+pushed by some screwjack arrangement that lifted it with slow, jerky
+movements till it was nearly upright. The moonlight fell upon the under
+surface that was turned toward us, and we understood the manner in which
+Leith's friends had arranged for us to make our exit from this world.
+The bottom of the stone slab had been carved into a perfect
+representation of a centipede, and as the slab remained stationary just
+before it reached the perpendicular, I began to dive into my mental
+reticule for the scraps of prayers that had been caught and held through
+a rather checkered career in places where the efficacy of prayer was
+looked upon with a cold eye.
+
+The prostrate savage rose slowly when the movements of the slab had
+ceased, and very tenderly he rolled Holman and me over the bed from
+which the stone had been lifted. He pushed our bodies against the wooden
+post that, fitting into a sliding groove on the body of the stone
+centipede, had lifted the thing upright, and to make certain that we
+would be in the exact centre of the depression when the stone came back
+to its proper resting place, he strapped us carefully to the support
+with pieces of ramie fibre, so that we could not move an inch. With
+faces turned upward we stared at the carved figure above us, and the
+insecure tenure we had upon life at that moment was impressed upon our
+minds by the extreme caution which the officiating wizard exercised in
+keeping his own body clear of the slab lest his brethren, who were
+evidently operating the clumsy mechanism from some place nearby, should
+let the stone centipede return to his home without giving him proper
+warning.
+
+At last he finished the business to his satisfaction and stepped
+backward. My imagination made the thing above me tremble as I looked at
+it with eyes of fear. The part of my body that spanned the depression
+became numb, and I breathed with difficulty.
+
+Holman broke the silence. "Good-bye, Verslun," he said cheerfully. "It's
+mighty tough to go out like this, but it's the fortune of war."
+
+I endeavoured to answer him, but the words, as if afraid of the horror
+that loomed above me, refused to come out of my throat. The fiendish
+manner in which we were to be killed unmanned me. The slab paralyzed
+thought, and it seemed to me that only the inmost kernel of my being, a
+very pin-point of the refined essence of life, was throbbing within my
+body.
+
+The officiating wizard stepped around us for a final survey. He glanced
+keenly at the position of our bodies, and, evidently satisfied that the
+centipede had every opportunity to make a good job, he flung himself
+down upon his face and started to murmur softly in the strange dialect
+which Leith had spoken when addressing the three earlier in the night,
+and which the dancer had used in the Cavern of Skulls. I remember that I
+tried during those few minutes to catch a word or two of the queer
+tongue, and curiously enough, in that moment of extreme peril, I
+endeavoured to connect it with some of the dialects I had heard during
+my long stay in the islands. The soft muttering seemed to be a thread
+connecting us with life itself, and I dreaded the moment it would cease.
+
+I do not know how long the chant continued. It rose and fell, a soft
+rhythmic murmur, and I prayed that it would never end. My ears sucked it
+in as if it was a life line to which my soul was clinging, and I dimly
+understood my eagerness to catch the sounds. My ability to do so seemed
+to be wanted as proof to convince my half-paralyzed body that I was
+still alive.
+
+The low chant ended with a little throaty cry, and I shut my eyes tight
+to save myself the final moment of agony which the falling of the stone
+would bring. For an instant there was absolute silence, then some one
+gripped me by the legs and pulled madly. The ramie fibre held my body to
+the supporting post of the centipede, and I heard Holman give a muttered
+order. A knife sawed the cords, a pair of hands gripped my heels and
+flung me forward, and as I fell clear of the groove the stone horror
+crashed back into its bed with a jolt that shook the huge table! I
+opened my eyes to see Kaipi looking at the face of the dancer he had
+stabbed in the back as the brute was muttering his prayer!
+
+"Oh hell!" said the Fijian. "Me thought him Soma. Me made mistake! Me
+going kill Soma, he kill Toni, Toni all same my brother, work long time
+with me at Suva!"
+
+"Hurry up and cut these ropes," cried Holman. "There are two more of
+those devils and they'll be back before we get the cramp out of our
+muscles."
+
+Kaipi sprang to obey, but when our bonds were cut away, we found that we
+could not get to our feet. Legs and arms were completely numbed, and the
+many abrasions that we had come by during the towing process to which we
+had been subjected made Kaipi's efforts to restore circulation by
+rubbing a species of torture that would surely have earned the
+commendation of Torquemada if it had been brought under his notice.
+
+"Narrow squeak, Verslun," remarked Holman, as he endeavoured to get to
+his knees. "I wonder where those two other devils went to work the
+machinery."
+
+"They must be close," I whispered. "Drag us over to the edge, Kaipi.
+They'll surely come up to see how the job was done or to see what is
+delaying their pal."
+
+Kaipi helped us over to the edge of the table, and while he was doing so
+he related briefly how he came to be on hand at the opportune moment.
+Our little expedition to the stone table had passed the Fijian soon
+after the trinity had taken us in tow, and Kaipi's eyes had mistaken the
+biggest of the three natives for Soma. Revenge for Toni's death being
+the one motive that inspired him, he had followed the procession,
+watched from the bushes till the other two dancers had left Soma's
+double with us on the top of the table, and had then climbed quietly up
+and knifed the officiating wizard while that person was exhorting the
+stone centipede to make a good job of Holman and me. The matter of our
+rescue had been an afterthought. Strictly speaking, he deserved no great
+amount of praise for dragging us out of danger, as he frankly admitted
+that he was waiting for a good chance to attack the person who resembled
+Soma, without having any particular worry whether the stone slab would
+descend before the opportunity arrived.
+
+"Never mind, Kaipi," said Holman, peering cautiously over the edge of
+the table, "I'm satisfied that you were handy at the moment without
+considering whether you came to help us or for some other purpose."
+
+"Toni all the same brother to me," muttered the Fijian, dimly
+understanding the meaning of the remark; "me kill Soma pretty damn
+soon."
+
+"Quite so," murmured Holman. "We'll give our consent to that operation,
+but keep quiet for the present till our two friends come back to see how
+neatly the old centipede fixed us."
+
+We remained silent, but not inactive. As we waited for the missing pair
+we rubbed our limbs carefully, and at the end of ten minutes we began to
+feel alive. Our revolvers had been lost from our pockets during the mad
+rush through the night--Leith had been too intent on kicking us to order
+his guard to search us for arms--and now we had nothing but our bare
+hands with which to do combat with a pair of dancers. But we thought we
+could do a lot with bare hands when we glanced at the spot where the
+stone centipede had crashed back to its bed, A vision of that devilish
+carving standing above one in the moonlight was enough to stimulate a
+person to herculean tasks when he understood that failure would bring
+him again under its ghastly shadow.
+
+For about twenty minutes we waited patiently. Kaipi had asserted that
+the two savages had slipped into the jungle growth after they had left
+the table, and it was evident that they had gone to some underground
+passage that connected with one of the pillars of the altar, through
+which the crude mechanism for lifting the stone slab had been operated.
+With one eye always to the dramatic, the wizards of the long ago had
+built the altar so that the common worshippers surrounding the place on
+days when the centipede was called upon to mash some unfortunate victim
+could not see how the slab was lifted, and would thus put the uplifting
+of the thing down to supernatural agency. It was the tribal Houdin who
+laid the foundation of many a strange belief amongst savage races.
+
+"Must be waiting for him to come to them," said Holman. "We'll give them
+a few minutes longer."
+
+It was Kaipi's sharp eyes that made the discovery. The pair came
+cautiously out of the bushes immediately underneath the tree which
+Holman and I had climbed to obtain a view of the surface of the table
+two nights before, and they crossed the clearing with hesitating steps.
+They evidently expected the officiating wizard to announce in sporting
+phraseology that the centipede had won the engagement with one swift
+blow to the body, and when no news was forthcoming they were puzzled.
+
+They confabbed in the centre of the clearing, and then hailed the table
+in the strange tongue. Receiving no answer, they again debated with
+much vigour, and, finally taking their courage in their hands, they came
+forward with quickened steps.
+
+We crept close to the edge, careful not to peer over while the pair were
+climbing up. As far as I was aware we had no plans made for their
+reception. Holman and I had no weapons, neither had the two dancers;
+Kaipi had the ugly short-bladed knife with which he had dispatched
+Soma's double.
+
+The puffing of the climbing pair came to us. They came near and nearer.
+A black arm came up over the edge of the table and clawed at the
+moss-grown stone, but while Holman and I reached forward with the
+intention of gripping the climber by the throat, Kaipi upset our plans
+by driving the blade of the knife into the back of the huge paw that was
+endeavouring to get a grip!
+
+A tremendous howl of pain came from the owner of the hand, the pinioned
+member was torn from beneath the blade, and as we pushed our heads over
+the edge, the top climber fell backward, swept his companion from the
+pillar, and the pair struck the coral rock beneath the table with a thud
+that was suggestive of broken bones. The native with the skewered hand
+picked himself up and dashed toward the trees, but the other remained at
+the foot of the pillar, and his position led us to believe that his neck
+had been broken by the fall.
+
+"My knife!" cried Kaipi. "He knocked my knife down!"
+
+The Fijian swung himself over the edge, and with monkey-like agility
+slipped down the pillar. He shouted up to us that he thought that the
+man on the ground was dead, but having found his precious knife, he
+proceeded to set all doubts upon the matter at rest.
+
+"Soma better dodge that little fire eater," muttered Holman. "I thought
+him a coward last night, but it looks as if he's a fighter when once he
+gets started."
+
+As we were unable to slip down the stone pillar in the same manner as
+the natives, we found the piece of rope by which the three dancers had
+hauled us up to the top, and making it secure upon a stone projection we
+lowered ourselves to the ground.
+
+"Now," said Holman, "we must make a new start, and if we get beat in
+this round we deserve all that the big fiend who has brought all this
+trouble about can do to us. Kaipi, you're a friend of mine for all time.
+Shake hands."
+
+The grinning Fijian shook hands with both of us, and we moved toward the
+trees, heading in the direction of the spot where Leith had kicked us so
+vigorously a few hours before.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+BARBARA'S MESSENGER
+
+We had a healthy respect for the deviltry of Leith and his friends as we
+turned our backs upon the lonely throne of the centipede, but the cry of
+"Father" which Edith Herndon had uttered was still ringing in our ears,
+and we were anxious to get within hitting distance of the big,
+treacherous ruffian. A mental review of the engagements made us feel
+rather light-hearted as we pushed through the tangle. If there were only
+six native dancers upon the island at the opening of the conflict in the
+Cavern of Skulls, we had reduced that number to one, while the bullet in
+Leith's shoulder would depreciate his fighting ability for some time.
+Outside the carriers, who, as far as we knew, were neutral in the
+matter, we had as opponents, Leith, One Eye, Soma, and the dancer whose
+hand had been punctured by Kaipi, and the knowledge that we were more
+evenly matched brought us some consolation.
+
+But the fact that Edith and Barbara Herndon were in the power of the
+scoundrel brought thoughts that cast a damper upon the little scrap of
+joy we derived from reckoning up the casualties of the enemy. The
+passion which Leith displayed after receiving Holman's bullet made us
+run forward like madmen each time we recalled the diabolical frenzy that
+he exhibited. We could not think of a good plan to circumvent the brute.
+The jungle hampered and maddened us, and although we knew that we had
+gone about our work in a blundering fashion, the circumstances were such
+that we could not improve our strategy in the future.
+
+We plunged on till nearly midnight, then Holman called a halt.
+
+"We must sleep," he said. "One can watch while the other two get some
+rest."
+
+Kaipi, who declared that he was never less inclined for slumber, agreed
+to take first watch, and Holman and I flung ourselves down upon the
+grass. We had had no slumber on the previous night, and the incidents in
+which we had taken part had left us exhausted.
+
+It was daybreak before Kaipi awakened us, and the face of the Fijian
+informed us that something had alarmed him. He was stretched full length
+on the ground, listening as only a native can listen, and we waited for
+his report. We had much respect for Kaipi's hearing after checking the
+signals he made concerning the approaching "tivo" dancer on the previous
+afternoon.
+
+"What is it?" asked Holman.
+
+"Some one go by, much hurry," murmured the Fijian.
+
+We crouched in the bushes and listened. It was hardly likely that Leith
+had changed his route, and the only person that we knew to be in our
+neighbourhood was the dancer.
+
+"If we could get hold of him we might use the third degree on him to
+guide us to the spot that Leith is making for," said Holman. "We'll be
+outgeneralled completely if he gets into those caverns on the hills. If
+he has provisions he can snap his fingers at a regiment."
+
+I agreed with him on that point. The valley inside the basalt cliffs,
+and which, as far as we could judge, could only be entered by the
+slippery pathway in the Vermilion Pit, was about the finest natural
+hiding place in the world. Without taking the caves into consideration,
+the luxurious vegetation in the cup between the hills made the finding
+of a person a matter of extreme luck. It was a marvellous maze that
+Nature seemed to have constructed especially for the diabolical work in
+which Leith was engaged.
+
+Kaipi's ear was still to the ground, and the anxious look upon his face
+convinced us that some one was close.
+
+"Coming back again," breathed the Islander. "One man, walk slow."
+
+Our own ears acquainted us of the approach at that moment. The sound of
+crackling twigs was quite close, and we waited breathlessly, eying the
+green curtain through which we expected the unknown to thrust himself.
+
+A black head bobbed through the leaves, and Holman planted a fist
+between the newcomer's eyes before the head could be withdrawn. The
+morning visitor dropped to the ground, and the three of us promptly fell
+upon him, the bloodthirsty Kaipi having to be restrained by main force
+from giving another exhibition of neat knifework.
+
+"Who is it?" asked Holman. "Get back, Kaipi, and let me see."
+
+We dragged the panting prisoner into the light, but instead of the
+escaped dancer, we found that we had trapped one of the five carriers, a
+big Raretongan named Maru, who was possessed of enormous strength.
+
+Holman's punch had been no light one, and it was a few seconds before
+the mists had cleared from the Raretongan's brain; then his big brown
+eyes lit up with a smile of gladness, and he nodded to Holman.
+
+"Me want you," he said.
+
+"Quite so," muttered Holman, "but I got you first."
+
+Maru smiled the smile of the man who has a card up his sleeve, and he
+fumbled in the folds of his sulu till he found what he wanted. With a
+dramatic flourish he drew from the cloth a small emerald ring that
+belonged to Barbara Herndon, and he smiled childishly as he saw the look
+of astonishment upon Holman's face as he snatched the trinket.
+
+"Why--who--how the devil did you get this?" he asked.
+
+"Little missee give me," replied Maru, still convulsed with the humour
+which his childish mind found in the situation. "She tell me come alonga
+you."
+
+Holman poured out a torrent of questions which the smiling messenger
+endeavoured to answer to the best of his ability. In pigeon English he
+informed us that he had deserted Leith's camp about midnight; that the
+big ruffian had turned abruptly from the direction he was moving in at
+the time we caught up with him, and that Holman's bullet had caused him
+serious inconvenience. The two girls and the Professor were in charge of
+Soma and the one-eyed white man, who, we now learned, was deaf and
+dumb. It was while One Eye was on guard that Barbara Herndon had been
+able to bribe the Raretongan to throw the strength of his muscles upon
+our side of the argument.
+
+Holman, with lover-like longing for anything owned by the lady of his
+choice, attempted to put the emerald ring in his pocket, but Maru
+objected strongly. The smile fled from his face, and his broken English
+nearly strangled him in his efforts to pour out enough of it to acquaint
+Holman of the nature of the agreement which he had entered into with
+Barbara Herndon.
+
+"Me only show you ring, that's all!" he cried. "You look, know little
+missee send me, ring mine all time. You give back."
+
+"You had better give it back to him," I cautioned. "He has got the idea
+into his head, and it will take a lot of arguing to convince him that
+Miss Barbara didn't give it to him to keep."
+
+"But she didn't!" cried Holman. "Why would she give him a ring? She just
+gave him a loan of it to let him see that she had sent him to us."
+
+"My ring all time," protested Maru. "That my pay fight mighty good for
+you."
+
+"Give it up to him," I advised. "He's only an overgrown child, and he
+has set his mind on it."
+
+"But, Verslun, I know she wouldn't do that!" protested the lover.
+"Barbara sent me this as----"
+
+"Oh, I know," I cried, "but we want fighters now, and Maru is a pretty
+athletic person."
+
+"Me damn good fighter!" cried the Raretongan. "Me plentee good fighter
+if me get ring."
+
+Holman gave up the trinket with a snort of disgust, and a few minutes
+afterward, when we were tramping along, I made it my business to drop
+back beside Maru and advise him to keep the ring out of the youngster's
+sight till we had rescued Miss Barbara. If the native had displayed his
+reward it was highly probable that the lovesick Holman, with nerves on
+the raw edge from want of sleep and worry, would have pounced upon the
+mighty Maru and endeavoured to obtain possession of what he fondly
+thought was a token of affection from his beloved.
+
+But the arrival of the messenger was worth more than the emerald ring to
+us at that moment. He had more woodcraft than Kaipi, who had spent most
+of his time upon the ocean, and his information regarding the direction
+in which Leith was now heading saved us many weary hours of marching.
+
+Yams and guavas, with wild passion fruit, made a breakfast and dinner as
+we clawed our way in pursuit. At midday we judged that we were hot upon
+the trail, unless Leith had changed his course, but the black cliffs
+were close to us at that moment, and the recollections of the gloomy
+caverns made us silent as we pushed through the matted jungle. We could
+see no trace of the path which Leith would be compelled to cut to enable
+the two girls to get through, and we heard no sounds. A lone parrakeet
+startled us with its harsh cry as it rose from a maupei tree, and the
+bird even seemed to recognize that it had committed a breach in sending
+its unmusical cry out upon the awful quiet of the place.
+
+Kaipi climbed a tall tree in the vain hope of catching sight of Leith's
+party as it crossed the small cleared spaces in the middle of the
+impenetrable growth, but nothing except the green plain of bushy tops
+and parasitical creepers was visible. As we waited beneath the tree the
+"ticking" of a wood bug sounded like hammer blows in the tremendous
+quietude, while the bursting of a pod reminded one of the beginning of a
+Fourth of July celebration. We had lost all trace of Leith, and now,
+immediately in front, rose the cliffs, and we saw a menace on their
+dark, forbidding front.
+
+The base of the hills presented the same nearly perpendicular formation
+that we had met when endeavouring to reach the long gallery, and we held
+a council to decide on what would be the best course to pursue. Maru was
+confident that Leith was heading for this particular point at the moment
+that Barbara's bribe caused the Raretongan to desert, and it was
+reasonable to think that the ruffian had retired to some hiding place to
+nurse his wound and decide upon the fate of the Professor and his two
+daughters. From the scraps of conversation which we had overheard before
+Holman interrupted the argument between Leith and the scientist, we
+thought it probable that the old man would visit the centipede upon the
+big table if he did not sign the papers that Leith required, while we
+shuddered at the probable fate of the two girls unless Providence
+directed us as to the manner in which we could effect a rescue.
+
+"We must divide," said Holman. "I'll take Kaipi and go north, you take
+Maru and go in the opposite direction. If you find the trail, camp near
+it and send Maru on the run back to us. I'll do the same if I strike the
+spoor of the big devil."
+
+It was about two o'clock, as nearly as we could judge, when we
+separated. We agreed to keep as close as possible to the rocky wall so
+that a messenger from one would have less difficulty in locating the
+other, and Maru and I found, before we had gone a hundred yards, that
+the nearer we could get to the cliff the quicker we could get along. The
+lianas found it difficult to get a grip upon the rocks, and we could
+worm our way without much trouble.
+
+We had travelled about three quarters of a mile when the native dropped
+upon his knees and I immediately followed his example. The ordinary
+Polynesian is not to be compared with the Australian black fellow or the
+American Indian in his knowledge of the forest, but Maru was an
+exception. His sight and hearing were abnormally keen, and he examined
+the grass carefully.
+
+"One man go by here pretty short time ago," he whispered.
+
+"Native?" I asked.
+
+"No, him wear shoes."
+
+The Raretongan crawled forward on his knees, his face close to the
+grass. The tracks upon the soft grass showed that the person was moving
+in the direction we were going, and for about twenty yards we followed
+cautiously. Leith, the one-eyed white man, and the Professor were the
+only three men on the Isle of Tears, outside Holman and myself, who
+would be wearing shoes. It was hard to think that the Professor or Leith
+would be alone at that moment, so I concluded, as we crawled along in
+the shadow of the cliff, that the tracks were made by One Eye.
+
+Maru suddenly sprang to his feet and stood listening. I listened too.
+Into the awful silence came a tremendous rumbling that increased each
+second till I pictured it as a cancer of noise growing with appalling
+rapidity within the encompassing stillness.
+
+"What is it?" I gasped. "Why it's----"
+
+I understood at that moment, and I sprang toward the jungle, but the
+big hand of the Raretongan gripped my shoulder and dragged me close to
+the cliff beneath an overhanging ledge.
+
+"Stay here!" he yelled, raising his voice above the tumult that seemed
+to be coming out of the heavens. "Keep close much!"
+
+The noise was deafening. The black cliff seemed to rock behind us, and
+as Maru pulled me down on my knees five hundred tons of rock shot from
+the heights and flattened ten square yards of the packed shrubs
+immediately in front of us!
+
+"Now!" screamed Maru, as the dust swept in under the ledge and nearly
+choked us; "we get away quick, plenty dust, they can't see!"
+
+The dirt and small rocks had rolled back upon us till we stood ankle
+deep, but the native's advice was good. Hugging the wall of the cliff,
+we ran back on our tracks till we had passed the area devastated by the
+landslide; then we sprang into the bushes and peered up at the cliff.
+High above the cloud of dust that was still rising from the ground, and
+leaning forward so that he could view the extent of the avalanche, was
+the one-eyed white man!
+
+"Maru," I whispered, "go back and get Holman. I'll wait here till you
+come."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+LEITH SCORES
+
+The one-eyed man stood for a long time contemplating his handiwork. From
+his point of observation he watched the pile of rocks and the
+surrounding bushes, and the absence of movement convinced him that the
+job had been well done. He commenced to make facial contortions as an
+outlet for the mirth he was generating inside, and at intervals he
+managed to produce a peculiar noise that reminded one of the bubbling of
+a camel. I began to think that One Eye, besides being deaf and dumb, was
+suffering from a shortage of gray matter inside his ugly-shaped head. He
+strutted up and down, and narrowly escaped toppling over the ledge
+through attempting a cake dance as a grand finale to the insane actions
+prompted by the successful manner in which he had engineered the
+landslide.
+
+The afternoon had lengthened out before Maru returned with Holman and
+Kaipi, and we hurriedly considered the best course to pursue. One Eye
+had been with Leith when Maru deserted, so it was obvious that we were
+not far from the ruffian's hiding place.
+
+"If we could catch this lunatic on the cliff?" muttered Holman. "Gee! we
+could tickle him with Kaipi's old knife blade till he ran us right into
+the haunt."
+
+"He's deaf," I said; "there's a good chance of roping him in if we could
+scale the cliff."
+
+"Me climb!" said Maru. "Him not hear. Me climb all alonga track, drop
+down, breakem him neck."
+
+"No, don't break his neck!" growled Holman. "We want him as a guide. Do
+you understand? He knows where Leith is hiding, and if we could get hold
+of him it would be clear sailing."
+
+Maru borrowed Kaipi's knife, nodded confidently as we adjured him to use
+caution, and then slipped back along the track so that he could climb to
+the level of the one-eyed person's perch before attempting to creep upon
+him. We sat down to await developments. The witless one was evidently a
+lookout, and it was advisable to wait and see the success of Maru's
+expedition before we attempted to move.
+
+It was a long wait. Maru didn't intend to take any chances by closing in
+hurriedly, and it was nearly two hours after his departure before we saw
+his head rise above a boulder high up over the spot where One Eye was
+keeping his vigil. It was evidently not the first time that the native
+had stalked a human being, and his fine tactics, which should have
+called forth praise, severely tried the small amount of patience that we
+possessed. Holman cursed softly beneath his breath as Maru sat for ten
+minutes at a time studying the route before attempting to move from a
+sheltering rock, and my own nails burrowed into the palms of my hands as
+I watched. The Raretongan was a genius in his own particular line, and I
+think he took more than ordinary precautions so that his success would
+prove to Holman that Barbara Herndon had not overpaid him when she
+presented him with the emerald ring as a reward for his desertion from
+Leith. Maru had no idea of the sentimental view of the matter which the
+youngster took; and he thought that Holman's objections against the
+bargain were caused by the thought that no services could be rendered
+that would be half as valuable as the trinket. The unsentimental savage
+could not imagine that the unstrung lover wanted the ring as a keepsake
+of the girl who had won his heart on board _The Waif_.
+
+"Caesar's Ghost! Why doesn't he hurry?" cried Holman. "That madman looks
+as if he's going to change his camping ground!"
+
+It looked as if the witless one was really going to move, and Maru had
+still some fifty yards to cover before he would be directly above the
+other's head. Our nerves were in such a state that we felt inclined to
+scream out to the patient stalker. If we could grab the scout we could
+probably induce him by gentle persuasion to act as guide, but if he
+escaped us, we pictured ourselves stumbling over precipices and through
+dark caverns with the same lack of results as had marked our trip to the
+place of skulls.
+
+Maru was decreasing the distance by inches. Slowly, very slowly, with
+all the serpentlike cunning of the savage, he advanced till he was
+almost above the spot where the other stood taking a survey of the
+jungle. But it was a farewell glance for One Eye. If Leith had placed
+him there to keep watch till he had reached a safe position, the watcher
+evidently considered that the time was up. He hopped to another ledge
+with the agility of a goat, and Holman groaned.
+
+Maru noticed the retreat, and quickened his movements. Dropping
+cautiously from ledge to ledge he crept upon the other with the
+swiftness of a leopard creeping upon its prey. One Eye's deafness left
+him at the mercy of the shadow in his rear. Swiftly taking cover
+whenever the white man's head moved to the right or the left, the native
+decreased the distance, and we rose to our knees.
+
+Then Maru sprang. His muscular right arm went round the neck of the
+white, and we were rushing toward the cliff without waiting to see the
+outcome of the struggle. The Raretongan's strength was immense, and we
+knew that the other could not break the strangle hold that had been put
+upon him. We were more afraid that One Eye would be choked into
+insensibility before we reached the post.
+
+The big native was sitting astride his captive when we gained the ledge,
+and the prisoner was blinking his one good eye as he stared up at him.
+We dropped down beside him and took a look at the sun-tanned face. He
+exhibited no fear, and the weak, watery eye showed no glint of
+intelligence. It was plain that his brain was slightly deranged.
+
+Holman jerked him into a sitting position, and with signs and gestures
+we endeavoured to explain what we wanted him to do. Neither of us
+understood the deaf and dumb alphabet, but the alphabet was hardly
+necessary. With much pantomimic action we described Leith, the
+Professor, and the two girls, and Kaipi enjoyed himself immensely by
+waving his knife in front of One Eye's face to signify the fate that
+awaited him if he did not immediately guide us to the spot. The Fijian
+was so proud of the blade that he could hardly be prevented from burying
+an inch of the steel in the prisoner's body.
+
+One Eye, although obviously half-witted, saw that Kaipi was only looking
+for an excuse to send him to a more undesirable place than the Isle of
+Tears, and he made eager signs that he would act as our guide. Holman
+relieved him of the revolver and cartridges he had in his pockets,
+strapped his arms behind him, and with Maru's hand clutching the collar
+of his coat, we signalled to him to step forward and step lively if he
+wished to delay his journey to the other world till his soul was in a
+better condition. The sun was close to the high ridges in the west, and
+we wished to close with Leith before nightfall.
+
+One Eye taxed our climbing powers in the next ten minutes. With the
+agility of a chamois he scurried along the narrow ledges, and several
+times Maru was forced to check his speed so that we could keep pace with
+him. Holman's face showed the joy he felt at receiving another
+opportunity to retrieve the blunders we had made in our two previous
+attacks. Now we had reduced the big villain's fighting bodyguard to two
+persons, Soma and the dancer, and if he had not impressed the carriers,
+we outnumbered him. But Leith was on his own ground, and we had already
+discovered that the Isle of Tears made an ideal retreat for an outlaw.
+The nearly impassable jungle, surrounded by the cliffs that were
+tunnelled with tremendous caverns, made a hiding place in which a few
+men could defy an army.
+
+One Eye moved along the side of the cliff for about five hundred yards,
+then turned into a small cañon hardly thirty feet wide, the bottom of
+which was about twenty yards above the valley from which we had climbed.
+
+Our intuition told us that we were near the retreat, and we halted the
+hurrying guide, and in the shelter of a boulder explained to him with
+more signs and gestures that we wished to proceed with extreme caution.
+The end of the gulch that was not more than a stone's throw from the
+face of the cliff was already dark with the shadows of the hills, and as
+we suspected that the opening to Leith's refuge was close, we wished to
+make no unnecessary noise in approaching it. Using the scattered rocks
+as covering, we advanced slowly, but before we reached the end the sun
+had disappeared, and the absence of twilight, noticeable in that
+latitude, compelled us to crawl along in a darkness that made it
+impossible to discern any object that was more than three feet distant.
+Holman was on one side of One Eye while Maru guarded him on the other
+side, and as the bottom of the gorge made it impossible for more than
+three to move abreast, Kaipi and I crawled in the rear.
+
+We were at One Eye's mercy at that moment, but the idiot appeared to be
+much impressed by the manner in which we had pictured the sure and
+sudden fate that would fall upon him if we suspected him of treachery.
+The mystery of the place gripped us as we went forward. High above us
+the stars looked as if they were floating sequins in a sea of dark blue.
+
+But the stars were blotted out suddenly, and I drew Holman's attention
+to the fact. The youngster got to his feet and groped around in the
+gloom, while we halted till he made an investigation. It was impossible
+to see the face of the half-witted guide to gain any information from
+his gestures.
+
+Holman stooped and whispered his finding to us. "We're in a covered
+passageway," he murmured. "I can just touch the roof by standing on
+tiptoe. As we're in the place we might as well walk instead of crawling;
+we'll get to the end quicker."
+
+Maru dragged One Eye to his feet, and we pushed on. The air of the place
+was much sweeter than the atmosphere of the Cavern of Skulls. The
+floor, instead of being covered with thick dust as we had found it in
+the former place, was one of clean, smooth rock, and the walls were
+perfectly dry.
+
+I had gripped One Eye's left arm while Holman was making the examination
+of the passage, and we had not proceeded more than twenty yards when he
+intimated that he wished to turn to the right. We allowed him to do so,
+and for fully twenty minutes he followed a zigzag course that left us
+completely nonplussed as to the way we had come. We could hardly count
+the number of the turnings. First to the right, then to the left, then
+back again toward the mouth of the place, he trotted forward with
+nothing to guide him, yet when we checked him at certain corners to find
+out if there was an angle in the path, we found that he was right in
+every instance.
+
+"He's counting the number of paces he takes between the turnings,"
+muttered Holman. "No man, unless he had the eyes of a cat, could find
+his way along this passage. Keep a grip on him or we'll never see
+daylight again."
+
+We guessed that we had walked for over half a mile when the guide
+stopped abruptly. In the dark we endeavoured to find out what had pulled
+him up short, but we tried in vain. A prick from Kaipi's knife blade
+would not make him budge an inch, and we clustered together and racked
+our brains to find the solution.
+
+"P'raps we're up against something," whispered Holman, "Feel if there's
+anything in front, Verslun."
+
+I walked forward a pace and groped in the blackness. My fingers touched
+solid rock. It hemmed us in on all sides. One Eye had walked us to the
+end of the passage, and we had come up against a blind wall.
+
+I whispered the news to Holman, and he swore softly. Maru's fingers
+tightened on the collar of the prisoner till his breath came in short
+gasps. Kaipi moved around to the side of the prisoner, but I pushed him
+roughly back. The Fijian's desire to use his knife on all occasions was
+somewhat irritating.
+
+"What'll we do?" asked Holman.
+
+"Get back," I answered. "He's either fooled us or he's lost his way."
+
+Holman gripped One Eye by the neck and shook him roughly. The
+youngster's temper was up, and it looked as if we had wasted the hours
+we had spent in capturing the idiot alive, and the time lost in
+following behind him through the cañon and the crooked passage. And time
+was precious when we thought of the agony which Edith and Barbara
+Herndon were suffering.
+
+In his temper Holman forgot that the prisoner was deaf, and he shouted
+a question at him. "What the devil is wrong?" he screamed. "Damn you,
+will--"
+
+Maru interrupted with a cry of astonishment. The wall at the end of the
+passage appeared to slide away, and, standing directly in front of us,
+his big frame outlined against a fire of brushwood that blazed behind
+him, was Leith!
+
+Holman gave a yell of rage and sprang forward, and Leith turned and sped
+into the gloom. In his astonishment at finding himself confronted by the
+enemy when the stone door had rolled aside, Holman had forgotten that he
+had a revolver in his possession, and Leith had passed the brushwood
+fire before I yelled out to the youngster to shoot.
+
+Holman fired immediately, and Leith staggered. For a moment we thought
+that he was down, but he picked himself up and ran on. I snatched a
+blazing pine limb from the fire as I rushed by, and with the light
+flickering upon the walls of the place, we sped madly after the flying
+figure that was barely discernible when the blazing branch flung a
+splinter of light into the gloom.
+
+Holman emptied the revolver, but the pounding of Leith's feet that came
+back to us proved that he was still running. Maru and Kaipi were
+hallooing far behind, but Holman and I ran side by side, our minds
+unable to think of anything but the capture of the human tiger in front.
+
+We were gaining on him. We could hear his laboured breathing, and I
+remembered with a thrill of satisfaction the wound that he had received
+the night before. It was only a question of time when we would have our
+fingers on his throat. "Keep it up!" gasped Holman. "We've got him,
+Verslun! We've got him!"
+
+It looked like it. The red glow from the torch enabled us to catch an
+occasional glimpse of shoes moving up and down at such a rate that the
+limbs to which they were attached always remained outside the area that
+was faintly illuminated. The momentary view of the footgear, together
+with the maddening _plop plop_ it made upon the rock, raised an insane
+idea within my brain that we were chasing a pair of bewitched shoes that
+were enticing us into the very heart of the mountain. The scanty diet
+and the happenings of the two preceding days had left me light-headed.
+The race was unreal. I had an idea that the shoes would run on forever,
+and that every yard they covered took me farther away from Edith
+Herndon.
+
+The flame of the pine branch went out, and we were left in utter
+darkness. But the sound of the flying feet still came back to us. At
+times we were so near that Holman thrust out his hands as he ran, and
+cursed softly as the sounds seemed to draw away from him.
+
+"I'll have you yet!" he cried. "I'll choke you, you devil!"
+
+A chuckle came out of the darkness and at that instant I made a
+discovery. Leith was not alone. Keeping time with the clatter of the
+shoes was a softer tattoo that told me that a barefooted runner was
+racing beside the man we were pursuing.
+
+Holman made the discovery at the same moment. "Soma," he breathed, and
+he ran faster. From some place that seemed to be leagues in the rear
+came the shouts of Maru and Kaipi, but their yells died away, and we
+were convinced that they had given up the chase.
+
+The _plop plop_ of the shoes ceased suddenly, and we slackened speed.
+Our brains suggested that Leith had stopped abruptly on the chance of
+doubling back before we could pull up, and a sweat of terror broke out
+upon us. If he doubled successfully he would reach the stone door
+through which we had got the first glimpse of him.
+
+"He's turned!" cried Holman. "We'll get him, Verslun! After the--O God!
+_Look out_!"
+
+Holman's warning came too late. The rocky floor over which we had been
+running, dropped away from us. I pitched forward after the youngster
+into a gulf of darkness, landed on my shoulder upon a mass of volcanic
+ash, and clutching vainly at the stuff, I rolled at tremendous speed
+down into the bowels of the earth. From far above us came the sounds of
+uncontrolled merriment--the high-pitched shrieks of a native rising
+above the deep bass laughter of Leith.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE BLACK KINDERGARTEN
+
+I thought we were a thousand years rolling down that slope of smothering
+ash. It was a quicksand that melted beneath us. We drove our arms into
+it, but the stuff slipped away like fine wood ash, and we went on and
+on. I knew Holman was in front of me. Occasionally a curse directed at
+Leith managed to slip out when his mouth was not filled with the
+smothering dust. Once I shouted at him, and he answered the cry with a
+groan that told me how the happening had affected him. The arch ruffian
+had checkmated us for the third time inside three days.
+
+We struck the bottom at last, and, like moles, we clawed our way out of
+the pile of soft, feathery stuff that came streaming down upon us like a
+river, and for some minutes we were busy wiping the fluffy ash from
+mouth and eyes and ears. It clung to us like down, and with each breath
+we drew it into our lungs till we coughed and sneezed from the
+irritation it produced. Struggling forward, knee-deep in the fine, dry
+powder, we reached a spot that was practically clear, and for five
+minutes we were busy endeavouring to relieve our tortured lungs.
+
+"How far did we roll?" asked Holman.
+
+"About half a mile," I replied.
+
+"But straight, Verslun! What do you think?"
+
+"Over a hundred yards; I'm certain of that."
+
+"Well, I'm going to climb back."
+
+"You can't do it!" I gasped. "That stuff is like quicksand."
+
+"All the same I'm going to make a try."
+
+We stumbled back to the gigantic ash pile, and shoulder to shoulder we
+made a rush at the immense mountain down which we had rolled. We
+couldn't see it, but we felt it rise around us like a flood as our legs
+sank deeper. It came up to our waists--to our armpits, choking and
+smothering us. Coming down we had rolled lightly over its surface, now
+our legs bored into it like rods, and we struggled vainly to move. The
+pile was like a high snowdrift into which we sank deeper and deeper the
+more we struggled, and, worn out with our efforts, we fought our way
+clear of the smothering ash and made an attempt to review the situation.
+
+"He's beat us," groaned Holman. "He just trotted ahead of us till he
+had us on the verge of the thing, and then he side-stepped. O God! What
+asses we have been!"
+
+"We did our best," I said.
+
+"Our best?" repeated Holman. "And the man who tells you that he did his
+best as an excuse for failure should be shot, Verslun."
+
+"We couldn't tell that this infernal trench was in front," I grumbled.
+
+"Then we shouldn't have chased him like a brace of madmen. I wonder if
+Maru and Kaipi came near it?"
+
+"We might call out, perhaps they'd hear."
+
+Holman yelled the names of the two natives into the gloom above us, but
+his yells only started a million echoes rolling through the tremendous
+fissure in which we were prisoners.
+
+"They turned back," said Holman. "They had sense enough to stay with One
+Eye; we hadn't."
+
+It was no use arguing with the youngster. He denounced our stupidity
+till his tongue was too dry to utter the charges his half-crazed brain
+made against us.
+
+To divert his thoughts I proposed that we make an attempt to explore the
+place, and without making any choice regarding direction we moved into
+the inky darkness.
+
+"We'll take it in turns to lead," said Holman gruffly. "Then if one of
+us topples over a precipice the other has a chance to save himself. I'll
+take first try at it, and if I find that I have pushed my foot into a
+hole I'll yell out a warning."
+
+I agreed, and we moved forward slowly. The chances of ever finding our
+way out of that place seemed small at that moment. Leith had put us in a
+spot where we would not be likely to trouble him for some time, and with
+bitterness in our hearts we staggered along in the dark, alternately
+damning the treachery of the ruffian and our own stupidity. We had tried
+to exercise caution, but when we reviewed our actions, it seemed, as
+Holman had remarked, that we had used the judgment of children.
+
+"Why didn't we wait at the door of that place till the brute came out?"
+he asked.
+
+I had no answer to give to the question, and after an interval of
+silence he fired others at me.
+
+"Why did you let go of One Eye? Why didn't we examine the cavern near
+the fire before chasing him? The girls might have been somewhere near
+the fire! Do you think they were?"
+
+"I don't think so," I answered, trying to soothe him. "I think Leith was
+the only person at the fire. He picked Soma up just before we reached
+the gulf."
+
+"But where are they? Where has the devil put them?"
+
+"God alone knows!" I cried. "Here, it's my turn to take the lead."
+
+In silence we went stumbling on into the appalling blackness. We could
+not see the dim outlines of each other when we stood only a few inches
+apart. The darkness of the Cavern of Skulls had been relieved by the
+silver skewers of moonlight, but in the night that rolled around us
+there was not a single gleam of light.
+
+We had no matches. Everything that was in our pockets had been jolted
+out during the mad jaunt to the stone table, and now the revolver and
+cartridges which we had taken from One Eye had been lost by Holman
+during the slide down the mountain of volcanic ash that brought us to
+the bottom of the underground prison.
+
+We plodded on for about an hour, then stopped simultaneously. At first I
+thought that the horror of the situation had affected my brain, but the
+fact that Holman had stopped abruptly at the same moment as I did choked
+back the cold fear that had rushed upon me. I was not insane! Holman was
+listening too! I seemed to feel that the tiny thread of sound which had
+set my pulses beating madly had also keyed him up to the highest
+tension.
+
+After a minute of intense silence he put a question.
+
+"Did you hear anything?"
+
+"Did you?" I stammered.
+
+"Are we mad, Verslun?" he asked hoarsely. "I thought--" He stopped and
+moved close to me. I heard his quick breathing as he groped to find me.
+
+"Verslun, did you hear?" he whispered, gripping my arm. "I heard her
+speak."
+
+"I thought I did," I breathed. "Perhaps--perhaps it was an echo."
+
+For a few minutes we stood, our ears searching for the sound that had
+disturbed us. We seemed afraid to call out--afraid to quench the little
+spark of hope which had suddenly flared up in the despair that filled
+our breasts. We knew that our ears had lied, and we tried to lengthen
+the thrill by remaining perfectly silent.
+
+The sound came again, and Holman sent a wild cry into the night that
+hemmed us in. We were not insane! The spark of hope blazed as we rushed
+headlong forward. The silvery voice of Barbara Herndon had come to us
+again through the terrible gloom!
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+TOGETHER AGAIN
+
+It is impossible to set down any statement that will enable the reader
+to form a mental picture of the meeting which took place in that spot of
+eternal night. Hands groped for hands in the darkness, and sobs and
+cries and words of comfort went out into the silence. Edith and Barbara
+Herndon wept, the Professor shrieked out denunciations of Leith, and
+Holman and I were nearly choked by the lumps that rose in our throats.
+
+Explanations came in broken sentences. The Professor's anger prevented
+him from giving the story in detail, and the girls were not in a
+condition to give a lucid account of their sufferings since the night
+we had left them to investigate the light in the hills. We gathered from
+the hysterical utterances, however, that Leith had rushed them to the
+hills on hearing from the escaped dancer that we had dodged the fate he
+intended for us when he had dispatched us to the table of the centipede.
+The reduction in his bodyguard caused him to make immediately for the
+secret retreat, and as he considered it inadvisable to press his
+argument with the Professor and Edith at that moment, he had lowered his
+three prisoners into the devil chamber into which we had accidentally
+fallen.
+
+"This is the place you mentioned to me the night you left the camp,"
+said the Professor.
+
+"We mentioned?" repeated Holman in amazement. "We didn't know the place
+existed till we rolled into it!"
+
+"But you read it out of the note that Soma dropped," cried the
+scientist. "Don't you remember where he threatened to put the five
+babies?"
+
+"The Black Kindergarten!" I stammered.
+
+"The Black Kindergarten," said the old man. "That is what the inhuman
+brute called the place when he lowered us into it. We are to stay here
+till I sign papers that will give him possession of my property, and
+till--till Edith consents to marry him!"
+
+He flung the words out into the stillness, and for a few minutes no one
+spoke. The horror of the situation had the same effect upon me as a blow
+from a sandbag. Three days before, we were in possession of Leith's
+letter to the one-eyed man, in which he had remarked that we would be
+occupants of the place of eternal night, and yet we had not been able to
+avert the fate which the brute had in store for us in case the Professor
+and Edith Herndon refused to consider his villainous proposals. The
+Professor's money and the girl's hand! The words made me physically
+sick, and I sat down upon the floor of the place till the dizziness had
+passed from my brain.
+
+"And food?" Holman put the question, but the words seemed to come to me
+from a great distance.
+
+"He told us he would lower it to us once a day till we--till we came to
+our senses," said Edith Herndon quietly. "We received our first supply
+some hours ago."
+
+She tried to speak bravely, but the little catch in her voice belied the
+courageous front which she endeavoured to assume under cover of the
+darkness. Barbara was silent, except for an occasional sob which she was
+unable to stifle, while the Professor poured forth his story of Leith's
+deception when he first met him in Sydney, and where the big scoundrel
+had poured into the ears of the laurel-hungry scientist the tales of
+skulls and ruins which he would find upon the Isle of Tears. The skulls
+and ruins were there, but it looked as if we would add our own skeletons
+to the crumbling bones of the long-dead Polynesians, the peculiarities
+of whose whitened brain cases were to supply the subject matter of the
+learned treatise that was to bring fame to the archaeologist. It was an
+indescribably mournful reunion. We could not see each other, and when
+silence fell upon us I had a horrible sensation that the choking,
+depressing darkness of the place was wafting Edith Herndon away from me.
+I longed to find and clasp the hand that had taken mine the night on
+board _The Waif_ when I made an offer of my services.
+
+The Professor had explained that the opening through which they had been
+lowered was immediately above their heads. They had not moved from the
+spot lest they would not be able to find it again to obtain the food
+which Leith had promised to send till they saw fit to accede to his
+proposals, and when Holman suggested moving forward upon a tour of
+investigation the old man combated the idea vigorously.
+
+"We will lose ourselves, and we will never be able to find our way back
+here to get the food," he cried.
+
+"But we will never get out by remaining here," said Holman. "If he has
+made the acceptance of those proposals the only grounds upon which he
+will grant you your liberty, I don't see that it will serve any good to
+remain here taking the food he throws down."
+
+"That's true," murmured Edith, and I blessed her mentally for the calm
+way in which she had uttered the words. The surrounding darkness had no
+terrors for her in comparison to the fate that awaited her above. The
+manner in which she spoke of the sallow-faced rogue convinced me that
+the proposals that had been made since the time that Leith had shone out
+in his true colours had produced a terror which she endeavoured to hide
+from her father and sister.
+
+But the dark terrified the Professor. Although he viewed Leith's
+proposals with the greatest abhorrence, the hole above his head appeared
+to him to be the only path back to the outer world, and he was afraid to
+stray.
+
+"There might be another way out of the place," said Holman. "Can Verslun
+and I make the attempt and leave you three here?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Barbara. "Please stay here with us!"
+
+"I think it will be better if we remain together," said Edith. "If you
+and Mr. Verslun did discover an opening it would be exceedingly
+difficult to find your way back here, and if you got out of this place
+you might not be able to reach the opening through which we were
+lowered. Perhaps the way to it is known only to Leith."
+
+Edith's argument was sound. Our finding them in that black cavern was
+purely an accident, and it was hardly probable that Holman and myself
+would be able to find our way back to the spot if we went off on a tour
+of investigation. Personally I had no desire to leave the girls. Leith's
+deviltry had so impressed me that I considered him capable of anything,
+and if he thought we were out of the way, I had no doubt that he would
+take immediate steps to break down the courage of the Professor and his
+daughters by means that were familiar to him. I could well understand
+that Edith Herndon's love for her father would compel her to sacrifice
+herself if she saw the aged Professor in front of the great stone
+centipede, and that might happen at any moment now that Leith considered
+that he had disposed of all active opposition.
+
+For hours we debated the matter, and finally the Professor was won over.
+He agreed to move forward on an inspection tour of the vast subterranean
+place the moment the next supply of food came from above, and we waited
+anxiously. During the wait Holman and I made short trips into the
+darkness, but we were careful that we did not get out of the hearing of
+the two girls, who called at intervals so that we would be able to find
+our way back. The place was awe-inspiring. Its size could only be
+guessed at. Stones that were flung in a certain direction where the
+floor sloped gradually downward could be heard rolling for many minutes
+after they left our hands.
+
+We guessed that it was early morning when we heard from Leith. A blazing
+torch illuminated a round hole about seventy feet above our heads, and
+Holman and I immediately remained quiet so that the big scoundrel would
+be in ignorance of the reunion. There was no possibility of the
+torchlight making our presence known. It would take a score of torches
+to enable him to see us.
+
+Leith thrust his head over the edge of the hole while Soma held the
+torch, and, with a coarse laugh, the ruffian inquired if his victims had
+changed their minds.
+
+"No, we have not," replied the Professor, his thin, quavering voice
+sounding strangely weak after the deep-throated bellow of the bully on
+top.
+
+"Well, you'll change it soon," cried Leith. "I'll leave you down there
+for another day or two, and then I'll get you up to do some stunts. Mind
+you, I mean a proper marriage with Miss Edith, Professor! _The Waif_
+will run us up to the German missionary station while you take charge
+here for your affectionate son-in-law."
+
+I opened my mouth to fling an answer at the taunting scoundrel, but
+Holman surmised my intention and begged me to hold my tongue.
+
+"They'll get no food if you cry out!" he whispered. "Don't speak to him,
+man!"
+
+The Professor made no answer to the offensive remark, and after a few
+minutes' silence Leith drew back, and Soma started to lower a bundle of
+food into the dark prison.
+
+"That rope might prove useful," whispered Holman. "Feel around and see
+if you can get hold of it before he pulls it up."
+
+The light of the torch which Leith held only illuminated about six feet
+of the rope as the native passed it into the prison, so Holman and I,
+standing directly under the opening, felt around in the darkness as the
+bundle of food came toward the ground.
+
+"I have it!" murmured Holman. "Wait till he unhooks the bundle."
+
+We let the rope run through our hands till the package of food touched
+the rock floor. The line had a small hook upon the end, and the moment
+Soma felt that the parcel had reached the bottom of the place, he
+dexterously unhooked it with a slight jerk and started to haul in.
+
+"Now!" whispered the youngster. "A big pull! We might bring the nigger
+through the hole!"
+
+We went very close to performing the feat. The jolt took the native
+unawares; he fell forward on his knees and barely saved himself from
+dropping into the opening. The rope came toward us with a run, but as we
+pulled furiously it stopped with a sudden jerk, and we knew that the
+other end was tied to some projection on the surface.
+
+Leith laughed derisively, and the laugh maddened Holman. He clutched the
+rope and started to climb rapidly upward. I couldn't see him, but I felt
+his shoes as he wriggled away into the darkness above me, and I held my
+breath, I gripped the rope and kept it taut so that Leith and Soma might
+not discover the ruse.
+
+But Leith had more cunning than we credited him with. After a futile
+pull at the rope he thrust the pine torch through the hole, and as it
+dropped into the cavern it illuminated the figure of Holman, who was
+then about fifteen feet from the floor. "Cut the rope!" roared the
+ruffian. "Quick, Soma! Cut the rope and break the ---- fool's neck!"
+
+Holman, realizing that it was impossible to reach the top, saved himself
+a nasty fall by sliding down the rope while the native slashed at it,
+but he had not touched the floor when the ninety feet of strong manilla
+came whirling down through the darkness. And the rope was not the only
+gift we received. Angry at discovering that we had escaped death in our
+plunge into the place, Leith poured forth a stream of blasphemy that
+outdid the effort he had made when kicking Holman and me on the
+afternoon the youngster had wounded him. He cursed us till the shocked
+Professor dragged his two daughters away out of hearing, and there we
+found the three when we had gathered up the rope and the food.
+
+"We might as well make a try to explore the place," said Holman. "The
+scoundrel says that he will not send down any more food till you accept
+his proposals."
+
+"Then we'll never get any," said Edith Herndon quietly. "I pray that God
+will show us the way out of this place."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE WHITE WATERFALL
+
+We found the rope exceedingly useful now that we had decided to explore
+the place in search of a way out. It was reasonable to think that the
+floor of the cavern would contain innumerable fissures into which we
+might fall, and to guard against this we decided to make a life line out
+of the thirty yards of manilla we had luckily obtained. Allowing about
+five yards of rope between each two persons, I tied it in turn around
+the waist of Holman, Barbara, the Professor, Edith, and myself, and
+being thus prepared against a precipice in our path, Holman took the
+lead and we followed in single file as the tightening of the rope
+informed each one that the immediate leader was a safe distance in
+front.
+
+"Is there any choice of direction?" asked Holman, pausing after he had
+taken half a dozen steps.
+
+"I don't think so," I said. "Unless some one has an intuition regarding
+the path to liberty."
+
+"Please let me pick the route," murmured Edith. "I am stretching out my
+arm, Mr. Holman; will you come here to me and feel the direction I am
+pointing in?"
+
+We clustered round the girl, each one feeling her outstretched arm and
+then turning quickly toward the point indicated. I was glad that no one
+could see my own face at that moment. It was pathetic to think of any
+one choosing a route in that abyss of horror, and the trouble which the
+girl took to make sure that Holman would move off in the direction she
+pointed brought tears to my eyes.
+
+"I--I might be silly in thinking it," she stammered, "but I believe--oh,
+please, Mr. Holman, try and walk in the direction I pointed in!"
+
+"I certainly will try," said the youngster. "If I go wrong, you put me
+right, will you? I believe somehow that we're going to find a way out. I
+don't know the right path to it, but I've got a premonition we'll find
+it. Now we're off again."
+
+We moved forward with anxious footsteps. Imagination furrowed the floor
+of that place with bottomless crevices, and the cold hand of fear
+gripped our hearts. It required a mental effort to move one foot past
+the other, and whenever one of the girls stumbled, her little cry of
+alarm brought untold agony to Holman and myself as we took a grip of
+the rope and braced ourselves against the happening which our excited
+minds expected any moment. We were walking hand in hand with dread--a
+dread that became greater when we thought that a false step of ours
+might drag to death the two women that we loved.
+
+On, and on, and on, we bored into the horrible night. With blind
+footsteps we walked fearfully through the Stygian waves that rolled
+around us. The place seemed to be of enormous size, and in the dead
+silence that surrounded us our footsteps woke clattering echoes that
+appeared to mock our efforts to escape.
+
+The air in places had a strange odour that reminded us of camphor. This
+peculiar smell seemed to be in certain stratas of the atmosphere through
+which we passed, and whenever our passage through these scented layers
+was unduly prolonged, we experienced a sensation that I can only liken
+to the near approach of seasickness. It made the girls sick and faint,
+but they walked on without complaining.
+
+We struck the wall of the place after we had been walking for a period
+that we judged to be about three hours, and we decided to rest for a
+while. We sat close together upon the cold floor and endeavoured to
+cheer each other's spirits by constantly asserting that the air of the
+place made it reasonable to suppose that there must be some other
+entrance besides the hole through which Leith had lowered the three, and
+the fissure through which Holman and I had rolled down the gigantic ash
+pile. And the assertions seemed logical. The two entrances that we knew
+of opened into Leith's retreat, and it was hard to think that the air
+supply of the enormous cavern in which we were wandering could come
+through those two openings. We combatted our fears with this argument as
+we ate a morsel of the food we had received that morning, and feeling
+that he who has the biggest stock of hope has the biggest grip upon
+life, we endeavoured to make light of our misfortunes as we stumbled on
+again after a short rest.
+
+But that impenetrable night produced a depression that we could not
+shake off. Imagination sprang ahead of the moment and pictured our final
+struggles. We fought with the nightmares that entered our minds, and
+conversation languished. We couldn't speak while the mental canvases
+were being rapidly coloured with scenes depicting our end in the
+darkness and the silence, where a grim fate would even deny one a last
+look at a dearly loved face. A silence came upon us that had the same
+effect as intense cold. Each in his own frozen husk of despair plodded
+forward with the idea that the others were so engrossed in their own
+thoughts that they were not inclined to answer when addressed. The
+darkness so completely isolated each person that after some hours of
+silence it required a tremendous effort to thoroughly convince the mind
+that one was walking with living people and not with phantoms.
+
+It was after one of these intervals of silence that Barbara Herndon made
+a discovery that chilled our blood. She made some commonplace remark to
+her sister and received no reply. She repeated the observation, but it
+brought no comment. The happening seemed to drag the rest of us from the
+strange torpor, and we stopped. We sensed that Barbara Herndon was
+feeling her way toward her sister, and presently the younger girl gave a
+shriek of alarm that stirred a million echoes in that place of terror.
+
+"Edith!" she shrieked. "Edith! Edith! Where are you?"
+
+Holman and I clawed fiercely upon the rope, moving toward each other in
+an effort to find a quick solution for the mystery. We collided
+violently as we reached the spot where the rope had circled Edith
+Herndon's waist, and we stood, stunned and speechless, as we fingered
+the cord. In some manner, probably severed by a knifelike projection of
+rock, the loop which I had knotted around her body had been cut through,
+and the rope had fallen unnoticed from the waist of the weary girl!
+
+"Great God!" I cried. "Where did we lose her? What way did we come?"
+
+The questions were ridiculous. The numbing influence of the place had
+made us walk for an hour or so in complete silence, and it was
+impossible to say when she had lost her position in the line. And now,
+as we moved round and round, endeavouring to peer into the blackness, we
+lost all sense of direction. Each had a different notion about the way
+we had come. While we were moving forward, our combined efforts to walk
+straight ahead made it impossible for one to turn and go in an opposite
+direction, but in the few moments of our excitement as we turned and
+twisted in clawing for the loop where Edith had been tied, we became
+bewildered. We didn't know in which direction to turn in searching for
+the lost one!
+
+"What'll we do?" cried the Professor. "Do something! Quick! Find her!
+Find her!"
+
+I took a great breath and yelled her name into the darkness. The sound
+thundered through the place like the noise made by a freight train.
+Again and again I screamed it, and the million devils in the place
+shrieked the name in mockery. I exhausted myself in my mad efforts to
+send my voice to her ears.
+
+Holman gripped my arm when I had worked myself into an insane frenzy,
+and he begged me to be quiet.
+
+"Barbara thought she heard an answer," he cried. "Listen! There it is
+again!"
+
+It was Edith! Her voice came to us like a thread of silver, and with no
+thought of the bottomless crevices that might be in our path, we charged
+blindly toward the spot from which her cry had come.
+
+It seemed ages before we met her. The sounds puzzled us, but at last we
+gripped her hands, and the Professor and Barbara, hysterical with joy,
+sobbed their thanks into the gloom.
+
+"I don't know how the rope became undone," cried Edith. "I didn't find
+out that I had become separated from the rest of you till I attempted to
+draw your attention to the waterfall."
+
+"To the what?" I questioned.
+
+"To the waterfall," repeated the girl. "Did you pass it? It is a
+beautiful little waterfall, and the water flows over a white limestone
+rock that makes it sparkle like so many fireflies in the dark."
+
+I cannot explain what happened to me at that moment. Some veil within my
+mind was torn away by the few words that the girl had uttered. I was
+back upon Levuka wharf, lying under the copra bag where Holman had found
+me, and for a moment I could not speak as the subconscious mind flung a
+score of half-forgotten incidents into my conscious area.
+
+_"It is the White Waterfall!"_ I yelled. "It is the White Waterfall
+that the Maori sang of on the wharf at Levuka! He was warning Toni, and
+Toni was killed by Soma because he knew! It is the way out! We're saved!
+We're saved! It is on the road to heaven out of Black Fernando's hell!"
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE WIZARDS' SEAT
+
+As we stumbled toward the spot from which came the sounds of running
+water, the incidents of the preceding ten days seemed to be dropping
+into their places within my brain like the pieces of a picture puzzle
+that has suddenly become plain to the eye of the child who is putting it
+together. I understood! My brain seemed bursting within my skull. It
+appeared to me that God, in his own way, had made me a blind instrument
+to do his work. The big Maori on the wharf at Levuka knew of the hell
+upon the Isle of Tears. The Maori had warned Toni, the little Fijian,
+but fear of what might happen to any one possessing the knowledge had
+made Toni deny that he was the companion of the Maori when he was
+questioned before and after he had reached _The Waif_. In a burst of
+confidence he had confessed the truth to me on the afternoon after I had
+saved him from being washed overboard, but the confession had been made
+in the presence of Soma, and, as Kaipi asserted, it had cost Toni his
+life. Leith, alias Black Fernando, had ordered the big Kanaka to put the
+possessor of such important information out of the way.
+
+I repeated over and over again the words which the Maori had addressed
+to his woolly headed pupil on that hot day at Levuka. They raced madly
+round in my mind, as if exultant because I had found the reason why they
+persisted in storing themselves in the cells of my brain. The soul
+within me had known that the knowledge would be wanted!
+
+"How many paces?" asked the Professor.
+
+"Sixty!" I roared; and then, seized with temporary insanity, I chanted
+the song of the Maori at the top of my voice:
+
+  "Sixty paces to the left,
+   Sixty paces to the left,
+   That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven,
+   That's the way to heaven out
+   Of Black Fernando's hell."
+
+"And here's the waterfall!" cried Holman, "Go easy now! It must be
+flowing into some hole, and we don't want to fall into an abyss just as
+Verslun has discovered the way out."
+
+We advanced cautiously toward the spot where, as Edith had said, the
+water sparkled like fireflies in the darkness. It was an eerie place. We
+knew that the water was there by the sound it made flowing over the
+rocks, but, except for the tiny sparks of phosphorescent light that
+seemed to fly out from it, we could not see it. The spectacle thrilled
+us. A million sparks of light seemed to rise from the bed of feldspar
+over which the water leaped, and the peculiar quality of the rock gave
+to it the weird brilliancy which held us spellbound as we advanced with
+extreme caution. It wasn't white by any means, but in those inky depths
+it would not require a great effort of the imagination to call it white.
+The faint luminous flashes were the only particles of light that we had
+seen since Leith had thrown the half-extinguished torch into the hole
+that morning, and we could hardly turn our eyes from the novelty.
+
+The water fell into an opening in the rocky floor, and gurgled away into
+depths that made us shiver as the distant tinkle came up to us as we
+crept forward on hands and knees. We were all thirsty at that moment,
+but we wished to put the directions of the Maori to an immediate test,
+and we were satisfied to let our longing for a cool drink stay with us
+till we could prove whether the strangely luminous waterfall before us
+was the one about which the two natives chanted the strange song.
+
+"They said to the left, didn't they?" asked Holman.
+
+"Yes," I answered. I hardly recognized my own voice as I jerked out the
+word. I couldn't see the faces of the girls, but I understood what
+skyscrapers of hope they had built upon the announcement I had made when
+Edith had told of her discovery. Now, as we moved around the hole in the
+floor, I understood what a tremendous shock it would be to them if we
+discovered that there was no connection between the falling water and
+the chant.
+
+"I suppose the left side will be the one upon our left hand when facing
+the fall?" said Holman.
+
+"I suppose so," I stammered. "Let us move up close to the side of the
+water."
+
+We edged along till we could touch the flashing stream that dropped from
+some point high up in the immense roof of the place, and then we started
+to step the distance, the Professor chattering along behind us, while
+the two girls brought up the rear.
+
+Holman chanted the numbers aloud, and a cold sweat broke out upon me as
+he counted. A fear of my own sanity came upon me. I thought that this
+connection between the song and the luminous water might have been
+suggested by a brain that had suddenly lost its balance under the
+torture of the preceding three days.
+
+"Fifty-six! Fifty-seven! Fifty-eight!----"
+
+It was Holman's voice, but to my reeling brain the sound came from the
+roof and thundered in my ears like a brazen bell.
+
+"Fifty-nine! _Sixty_!"
+
+We stopped together, and the suppressed sobs of Barbara Herndon were the
+only sounds that broke the little stillness that followed. There was no
+way out! The darkness, so it seemed to us, was thicker than ever!
+
+"Nothing doing," muttered Holman. "I counted right, didn't I?"
+
+"I think so," I answered huskily.
+
+"Sixty paces exactly, and here's the wall alongside us."
+
+My fingers groped along the moist rock. I felt stunned. Now that the
+test had been made it seemed insanity to connect a chant that I heard at
+Levuka with a waterfall in a cavern on the Isle of Tears. But why had
+Toni been killed? Why had Leith exhibited such curiosity about the song
+when he heard me relating the incident to the two sisters on board the
+yacht?
+
+My fingers came to a crevice in the wall as the question presented a
+bold front to the doubt that had gripped me. The fissure was some four
+feet wide, and my exclamation made Holman put a question.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing," I answered. Wrecked hopes had made me cautious. Still I felt
+certain that I had remembered those words for some purpose. I recalled
+how they had puzzled me on that hot day, and how I had questioned Holman
+concerning "Pilgrim's Progress" when he had roused me from my sleep.
+
+"Well, if there's nothing here I'm going back to get a drink," said
+Holman.
+
+"Hold on!" I stammered, as I uncoiled the piece of spare rope from my
+shoulders; "I want you a minute. There's a split in this rock, and I'm
+going to explore it. Take the end of this rope and hang on."
+
+"Hadn't I better go with you?" he asked.
+
+"Not this trip," I answered. "I've just got a feeling that I'd like to
+see where it leads to. Hold tight!"
+
+I stepped cautiously into the narrow passage and immediately found that
+it narrowed to such an extent that I had to turn sideways to squeeze
+through. The floor sloped upward, and as the rock was damp and slippery,
+I dropped upon my knees so that I could climb more rapidly. The place
+seemed a narrow chute. My knees were skinned from the rough bottom, but
+I scratched desperately to obtain a footing. Hope was still alive. The
+Maori had said that the road to heaven was sixty paces from the White
+Waterfall, and if an all-seeing Providence had guided Edith to the
+waterfall, it was surely decreed that we would make our escape from the
+clutches of the devil who had us at his mercy.
+
+"We will surely escape," I muttered, as I scratched and clawed in an
+effort to drag myself up the slippery path. "We will escape! I know it!
+We will escape! I know--"
+
+The muttered words died upon my lips. The crevice turned and then
+broadened suddenly, and a blinding flash of light forced me to fling
+myself face downward upon the rock. For a moment I lay there, wondering
+stupidly whether something had happened to my eyes or whether I had come
+suddenly into the light of day. I had seen light--the light of what?
+
+Slowly I lifted my head, and the truth came to me with stunning force.
+It was God's own sunlight that I had seen! The chute ended within three
+paces of the spot where I lay, and immediately opposite the opening
+through which I looked was a patch of vermilion rock that blazed
+gloriously as the rays of the afternoon sun struck full upon it. I knew
+that rock! It had thrilled me as I looked at it on the afternoon when
+Leith had introduced us to the greatest natural wonder of the Pacific. I
+was at the end of a passage that opened into the Vermilion Pit!
+
+From where I lay I could not see the top of the crater. When the
+passage had suddenly broadened, the roof came down upon it, so that the
+opening through which I looked at the opposite side of the great pit was
+about ten feet wide but not more than two feet in height. An overhanging
+lip of rock prevented me from looking up, but I understood that I was
+lower than the slippery Ledge of Death that we had crossed to reach the
+Valley of Echoes. It seemed years since we had crossed that path, yet it
+was less than a week.
+
+I thought of the others waiting in the darkness, and I turned and slid
+down the chute up which I had scrambled. The path to liberty was not yet
+plain, but there was fresh air and sunlight at the top of the chute, and
+one could see the faces of those they loved. Bumping and bounding over
+the jagged rocks I went at a terrific speed to the bottom of the slide,
+and, scrambling through the opening, I shouted the news to the four who
+waited there.
+
+"It opens into the Vermilion Pit!" I gasped. "I can't see how we can
+climb out, but there's hope--there's hope!"
+
+I was foolish in making the last statement, but the sight of the
+glorious sunbeams, striking down into the abyss, had made me blind to
+the difficulties that were yet to be faced! And the Maori's chant must
+surely be true! Now that it had brought us to the light, I could not
+but believe that it would bring us to liberty.
+
+The slippery chute brought a suggestion from Holman. He advised that the
+two girls and the Professor remain at the bottom while he and I took one
+end of the rope to the top so that we could haul them up the wet track
+that I had scaled with difficulty.
+
+"We won't be five minutes!" I cried. "Stay where you are till we
+signal."
+
+I didn't think, as Holman and I crawled to the top of that place, what
+an eventful five minutes that would be. But the big things of life are
+crammed into minutes, and Time was bringing the most thrilling one of
+our lives toward us as we scrambled up the chute. Our adventures upon
+the Isle of Tears were to have a climax that fitted them.
+
+Holman stopped as I had done and thrust his face down upon the rock as
+his eyes caught a glimpse of the glittering wall of the crater that came
+suddenly into view. The rays of the sun blazing down upon the stained
+sides of the mysterious pit made the veins of colour appear like
+brilliant snakes. The patch that was framed by the walls of the opening
+through which we gazed was a wild riot of scintillating, blinding
+colours that dazzled our eyes as we stared at them.
+
+For a minute Holman breathed hungrily of the hot air, then he attempted
+to discover our exact position in the crater.
+
+"We must be somewhere near the top," he declared. "Don't you remember
+that the colour of the walls darkened rapidly below the Ledge of Death?"
+
+"I remember," I answered. "We must be nearly on a level with the Ledge."
+
+"If we could look out from under this projecting piece of rock,"
+muttered the youngster.
+
+"It's risky."
+
+"I'll make a try, Verslun. Hold my legs. I'm going to hang out of this
+burrow and take a peep around to get our bearings."
+
+I gripped his legs, and turning upon his back he pushed himself slowly
+out over the edge of the passage till he was able to look up in front of
+the piece of rock that projected like the peak of a cap above the
+opening.
+
+Clinging to this peak with his two hands, the upper part of his body
+being out over the abyss, he stared upward, and as I watched his face I
+noticed the look of joy and amazement that spread across it.
+
+"What is it, Holman?" I cried. "Are we saved? Tell me!"
+
+He slid hurriedly back to safety and pounded the rock above his head
+with his bare fists.
+
+"Do you know what this is?" he yelled. "Do you know?"
+
+I tried to utter the words that came to my tongue, but I could not. I
+could see the joy in the youngster's eyes, but I was afraid to speak.
+
+"It is the Ledge of Death!" he shouted. "There is only six inches of
+rock above us!"
+
+"Then we're saved!" I cried.
+
+"Sure! If you put the rope around me I can crawl up on it, and once
+there I can haul up the others. Do you know what Soma told the Professor
+about the bad men falling into this infernal pit?"
+
+I nodded my head. I was unable to speak at that moment.
+
+"Well, the Wizards of the Centipede fixed that! Don't you see? This was
+their seat! They leaned out of this place as I leaned out just now, and
+they gripped the ankles of any poor devil they had a grouch against. It
+was devilish----"
+
+I put my hand across his mouth and he became instantly mute. We held our
+breath and listened intently. From above us came the faint sound of
+footsteps and a cold perspiration broke out upon us. Some one was
+walking slowly along the Ledge of Death!
+
+The sounds ceased when the unknown was immediately above our heads, and
+a guilty look came upon Holman's face. The man on the Ledge had
+probably heard the youngster's voice, and he was puzzled to know where
+the sounds had come from.
+
+We sat without moving a muscle. The silence convinced us that the
+unknown was listening. We knew that he hadn't climbed from the Ledge to
+the top of the crater. The scratching of his shoes against the rock
+would have come to our ears. He was waiting--waiting to discover from
+what direction the voice had come that caused him to pause and listen.
+
+The minutes passed like slow-dragging years. The man above wore shoes
+and the two men who wore shoes, outside our own party, were Leith and
+the one-eyed man. Somehow we felt that Maru and Kaipi had settled with
+One Eye, so there was only one person on the Isle of Tears who could
+possibly be listening.
+
+Ten minutes passed, then Holman pointed to his own legs. I understood
+the sign and gripped his ankles. My head was bursting with the terror
+inspired by the thought that our escape might be cut off after the
+miraculous manner in which the way out had been shown to us.
+
+Without noise, yet with incredible swiftness, the youngster turned upon
+his back and wriggled forward till his head and shoulders were again out
+over the pit. His body was tense, every muscle showing as he stiffened
+himself. Into my mind flashed a picture of the bloodthirsty Wizards of
+the Centipede stretching out in exactly the same manner centuries before
+a white man sailed into the Pacific!
+
+The silence seemed to sap my strength. I watched Holman with eyes that
+were half-blinded by the perspiration that rolled down my forehead.
+There was no movement upon the ledge, and the fingers of the youngster
+were reaching slowly--slowly upward.
+
+It was a yell of horror that shattered the awful quiet--a yell that went
+up through the hot air like the shriek of a lost soul. It swirled around
+and around like a lariat of brass. It was a terrible yell. It wrenched
+my inmost being till the very spirit seemed to go out of me for an
+instant, and I returned to consciousness to find myself struggling to
+hold Holman from being dragged into the depths below.
+
+It was the youngster's voice that seemed to bring me back to a knowledge
+of the surroundings. In an instant's pause in the torrent of blasphemy
+his words came to me clear and distinct.
+
+"Hold me tight, Verslun!" he cried. "Hold me tight, man! _I have him!_"
+
+[Illustration: "Hold me tight, Verslun!" he cried. "Hold me tight, man!
+_I have him!_"]
+
+I shut my eyes to escape the fascination of the depths, and I gripped
+Holman's ankles till my nails burrowed into his flesh. I felt his body
+heave with a tremendous effort, then another yell, shorter but more
+terrifying than the first, told me that the struggle was over.
+
+I dragged Holman back to safety, and, stretched side by side upon the
+rock, we listened. Down in the pit--miles, leagues away, something was
+falling!
+
+The youngster pulled himself together after the silence had settled upon
+the place like a film.
+
+"Let's tie the rope and get the girls up here," he said quietly, "In a
+while--in a little while--I can crawl on to the ledge and pull them up
+with a rope."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE WAY TO HEAVEN
+
+With quick-beating pulses we fixed the rope and shouted directions down
+the slippery passage to the girls and the Professor, and inside of ten
+minutes they were beside us, looking out with frightened eyes at the
+coloured wall of the opposite side of the pit. The faces of Edith and
+Barbara looked pale and careworn, but they smiled bravely when Holman
+assured them that we were within a yard of the path by which we had
+crossed to the Valley of Echoes.
+
+"Be brave," he said cheerfully. "You'll be on your way back to the
+shore before many hours have passed by. There is no--no danger now."
+
+I do not know if the two girls understood the meaning of his words, but
+they asked no questions. Somehow I think that they knew what had
+happened. Those two terrible cries must have reached their ears as they
+waited at the foot of the chute that led to the wizards' seat, but if
+they had any doubts concerning their origin, they refrained from seeking
+information. But the Professor knew. A melancholy that had tied his
+tongue all through the long day in the Black Kindergarten left him as he
+came to the sunlight, and he became light-hearted and merry. He felt
+that he had been relieved of his load of nightmares, and the dangers of
+the climb to the rocky shelf above our heads did not trouble him in the
+least.
+
+It was Holman who performed the heroic work on the late afternoon of
+that eventful day. With the rope tied around his waist, he pushed
+himself out as he had done twice before during the preceding hour, then,
+gripping the edge of the shelf, dragged himself forward. For a moment,
+as he swung over the depths, it looked as if he would be unable to drag
+himself up, and we clung on to the rope and watched him with frightened
+eyes. But youth and courage won the day. Slowly, inch by inch, he lifted
+himself, the lips of the two girls moving in dumb prayer; then we lost
+sight of him as he drew his legs up on to the ledge, and we knew that we
+were safe!
+
+The youngster secured the rope to a projection on the shelf above, and
+the Professor, nervous but game, was the next to make the perilous
+journey. It was blood-curdling to watch the old man swaying over the
+depths while Holman, lying flat upon his stomach, gripped him beneath
+the arms and dragged the poor old scientist to safety.
+
+Barbara went next, and when the rope was lowered once more I secured it
+around Edith's waist. I held her in my arms as I pushed her body forward
+to Holman's strong hands that waited just below the ledge, and for one
+brief instant her lips came close to mine, and with a mad, wild love
+that had been born in danger, where there was no time for words, I
+stooped and kissed her. And even in that moment of extreme peril a faint
+smile swept over her face as she looked up into mine, and I knew that
+she understood.
+
+It was nearly sunset when we moved away from the top of the Vermilion
+Pit, but we had not gone ten paces when we stopped. A yell came out of
+the place, then another and another, and Holman and I rushed back to the
+edge. Down beneath us, on the slippery Ledge of Death, two natives were
+locked in a death grip, and a single glance told us that they were Maru
+and Soma. The Raretongan had chased Leith's brown lieutenant on to the
+path, and now they were struggling like demons in the mad endeavour to
+thrust each other into the depths.
+
+"Quick!" cried Holman. "The rope!"
+
+He slipped the line around his waist as the pair moved to the edge. Maru
+was dragging the big savage with a strength that was surprising, but it
+was a certainty that if Soma went over the edge the Raretongan would
+keep him company.
+
+Holman slipped down upon the Ledge, but before he could reach them a
+dusty, bleeding figure stumbled through the entrance to the cavern, a
+knife flashed in the sunlight, and Maru was drawn back into safety as
+Soma released his grip. The newcomer was Kaipi!
+
+"He kill Toni!" he cried. "Toni all same brother to me. Toni work with
+me long time Suva."
+
+Toni, the pupil of the Maori, who had instructed him on Levuka wharf as
+to the way out of Black Fernando's hell, had been avenged at last.
+
+It was a happy reunion we held upon the edge of the pit. Edith and
+Barbara bound up the wounds of the two faithful natives, and the
+muscular Raretongan was so touched with their tender ministrations that
+he foraged in his tattered sulu, and with tears of gratitude in his big
+brown eyes he handed back to Barbara the emerald ring with which she had
+caused him to desert from Leith's service.
+
+"Me want no pay from you!" he cried. "Me work for you all same
+nothing!"
+
+We learned that the one-eyed white man and the last of the Wizards of
+the Centipede had been dispatched by Maru and Kaipi, and we also
+received the news that the four carriers had bolted back to the yacht.
+The latter piece of information somewhat dampened our spirits. We felt
+that Leith and Newmarch were friends, and we wondered what the silent,
+thin-faced captain would do when he heard the story of Black Fernando's
+discomfiture.
+
+On account of Kaipi's weak state we camped that evening on the same spot
+that we had occupied on the second night upon the Isle of Tears, and at
+daybreak next morning we set out for the little bay. We were all happy.
+The Professor was as pleased as a boy on his vacation, and he had
+returned again to his task of taking notes. The two girls were radiant;
+Kaipi was joyful because the murdered Toni had been revenged, and Maru
+was in the seventh heaven of delight because Barbara had informed him
+that he could go to San Francisco with the party as a reward for his
+devotion. As for Holman and myself, we forgot the loneliness of the
+place in our joy. The same trees peered at us, the same cablelike vines
+gripped our legs, and the same weird rock masses blocked our paths, but
+love was in our hearts, and morbid thoughts were chased away.
+
+On the afternoon of the second day from the pit we reached the shore of
+the little bay, but _The Waif_ was not there. Newmarch had evidently
+discovered that Leith had not been quite successful in the carrying out
+of his plans, and fearful of his own share in the business, he had
+bolted with the yacht. The South Sea breeds piratical thoughts, and from
+our own knowledge of the captain we guessed that in his particular case
+those thoughts would be easily generated.
+
+"He thinks he'll save his own skin by clearing out," said Holman, "but
+I'm satisfied that Dame Justice is an expert with the lariat. If he's
+not in jail before three months are out, my name is not Will Holman."
+
+It was the missionary schooner _Messenger of Light_ that saw our beacon
+upon the island on the fourth day after we had reached the spot where we
+had landed from _The Waif_. The beautiful white vessel hove to outside
+the entrance to the little bay, a boat came ashore, and twenty minutes
+after they had first sighted our signal we were on the way to
+Wellington, New Zealand.
+
+"And the 'Frisco boats call there," murmured Barbara, "Joy! Joy! Joy!"
+
+The moon was whitening the sleeping Pacific when Edith and I stood
+looking over the taffrail as the _Messenger of Light_ swept on her
+course. From nearby came the voice of Professor Herndon relating his
+experiences to a missionary who was returning from the Marquesas. A soft
+island melody was wafted from the fo'c'stle, and the night was alive
+with all the witchery of the tropics.
+
+"Edith," I whispered, as I took her hand, "I am a common sailorman, but
+if you could love me I--I--"
+
+I stopped in confusion, and as she had done on a former occasion, she
+came to the rescue of my stammering tongue.
+
+"You are a big, true man," she murmured. "If you had not come with us we
+should not have returned from that awful place. God let you listen to
+that song of the White Waterfall so that we might be saved."
+
+Some minutes afterward she released herself from my arms. "Let us find
+Will and Barbara," she said softly. "We will share each other's
+happiness."
+
+And as I followed her across the poop, a tremendous surge of joy rose up
+and filled my heart. The whole world was clean and good, and in my
+glorious exultation I whispered a prayer for the soul of John Leith,
+alias Black Fernando.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The White Waterfall, by James Francis Dwyer
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE WATERFALL ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10862-8.txt or 10862-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/8/6/10862/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Harold Lawson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+