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diff --git a/10862-h/10862-h.htm b/10862-h/10862-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a47d75 --- /dev/null +++ b/10862-h/10862-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7566 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + + <title>The White Waterfall.</title> + + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + ol.uroman {list-style-type: upper-roman} + + .note, + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + .figure, .figcenter, .figright + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img + {border: none;} + + {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;} + .figcenter {margin: auto;} + + --> + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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 + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr class="full" /> +<br/> +<h5>THE INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE LIBRARY</h5> +<h5>THREE OWLS EDITION</h5> +<br/> +<br/> +<br/> +<h1>THE WHITE WATERFALL</h1> +<h2>An Adventure Story</h2> +<h3>BY JAMES FRANCIS DWYER</h3> +<br/> +<br/> + +<hr class="full" /> +<br/> +<h5>TO L.G.D. and G.M.D.</h5> +<hr class="full" /> +<br/> +<div class="poem" style= "margin-left: 30%;"> +<p style= "margin-left: -5px;">"THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,</p> +<p>THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN,</p> +<p>THAT'S THE WAY TO HEAVEN OUT</p> +<p>OF BLACK FERNANDO'S HELL."</p> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> + +<b>PREFACE</b> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"> J.F.D. </p> +<p>New York, March, 1912.</p> +<br/> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/011.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/011.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<p>CHAPTER</p> +<ol class= "uroman" style=" text-indent: 5%; "> +<li>The Song of the Maori</li> +<li>The Professor's Daughters</li> +<li>A Knife From the Dark</li> +<li>The Storm</li> +<li>I Make a Promise</li> +<li>The Isle of Tears</li> +<li>The Pit</li> +<li>The Ledge of Death</li> +<li>Into the Valley of Echoes</li> +<li>A Midnight Alarm</li> +<li>Kaipi Performs a Service</li> +<li>The Devil Dancers</li> +<li>Tombs of Silence</li> +<li>Back to the Camp</li> +<li>A Day of Skirmishing</li> +<li>The Stone Table</li> +<li>Beneath the Centipede</li> +<li>Barbara's Messenger</li> +<li>Leith Scores</li> +<li>The Black Kindergarten</li> +<li>Together Again</li> +<li>The White Waterfall</li> +<li>The Wizard's Seat</li> +<li>The Way to Heaven</li> +</ol> +<br/> + +<hr class="full" /> +<br/> +<br/> +<br/> +<br/> +<h1>THE WHITE WATERFALL</h1> +<br/> +<br/> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"><a href="images/013.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/013.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"><a href="images/015.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/015.png" alt="" /></a></div> +<br/> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h4>THE SONG OF THE MAORI</h4> + +<p>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 <i>Navua</i>, from Auckland, appeared to +be stuck fast, as if the glassy sea had suddenly hardened around her +black hull.</p> + +<p>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 <i>kauri</i> pine, and after rigging up one bag as an +awning, I spread the others on the planks and fell asleep.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There's the white waterfall," chanted the Maori.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the white waterfall," repeated the Fijian.</p> + +<p>"An' you go along sixty paces."</p> + +<p>"To the right?" questioned the Fijian.</p> + +<p>"No! To the left, you fool!" screamed his companion.</p> + +<p>"All right, you go to the left," muttered the rebuked one. "An' that's +the way to heaven!" cried the Maori.</p> + +<p>"The way to heaven," echoed the Fijian; then the two lifted up their +voices and chanted:</p> + +<div class="poem" style= "margin-left: 30%;"> +<p style= "margin-left: -5px;">"That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven out</p> +<p>Of Black Fernando's hell.</p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How many paces?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Sixty," answered the Fijian.</p> + +<p>"To the right, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>The Fijian, who was apparently afraid of the bully, hurried to obey the +order, and I wondered as I listened.</p> + +<p>"Sixty paces to the left," squeaked the Fijian.</p> + +<p>"Sixty paces to the left," roared the Maori. "Now together!"</p> + +<div class="poem" style= "margin-left: 30%;"> +<p style= "margin-left: -5px;">"That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven out</p> +<p>Of ——"</p> +</div> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"It is," I answered. "If I knew where that white waterfall is I'd go and +stand under it for a few minutes."</p> + +<p>The small Fijian gave a little gurgle of surprise and looked up at his +big teacher, who regarded me with eyes of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What white waterfall, boss?" he asked blandly.</p> + +<p>"The one you were singing about," I cried.</p> + +<p>The Maori smiled sweetly. "We weren't singing about a white waterfall, +boss," he spluttered. "I just guess you were asleep an' dreamed +something."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The action startled the Fijian. He had an idea that I was going to use +the piece of <i>kauri</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Are you Jack Verslun?" he asked.</p> + +<p>I nodded. It was too warm to use words recklessly.</p> + +<p>"Pierre the Rat sent me after you," he continued.</p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I have a berth for you," he answered. "I'm from <i>The Waif</i>. 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?"</p> + +<p>"Where are you bound?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Manihiki group."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Science expedition under the direction of Professor Herndon of San +Francisco."</p> + +<p>I sat up and looked across the stretch of water at <i>The Waif</i>, 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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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'?"</p> + +<p>The young fellow looked at me and grinned. "Yes, I did," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember much of it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Not much," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything in it about a white waterfall that is on the way to +heaven out of Black Fernando's hell?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well?" I growled. "What's the grin for?"</p> + +<p>"What has Bunyan got to do with my business?" he asked. "I came to sign +you up for a mate's job on <i>The Waif</i>, and I am in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"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> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> was waiting to take us +aboard the yacht.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's up?" asked Holman. "Do you know Toni?"</p> + +<p>"He's one of the brace that were singing that song about the white +waterfall," I growled.</p> + +<p>The Fijian let out a volley of indignant denials, and Holman laughed.</p> + +<p>"You might be mistaken," he said. "Toni came ashore with me about two +hours ago, but I don't think he left the boat."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I wonder who it is?" he muttered. "Perhaps it is somebody with your +board bill, Verslun."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"He must be mad," muttered Holman. "The darned fool thinks we—Listen!"</p> + +<p>A land breeze brought the last line of the chant to our ears as we +neared <i>The Waif</i>, 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:</p> + +<div class="poem" style= "margin-left: 30%;"> +<p style= "margin-left: -5px;">"That's the way to heaven out</p> +<p>Of Black Fernando's hell."</p> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/026.png"><img width = "100%" src="images/026.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h4>THE PROFESSOR'S DAUGHTERS</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Newmarch grunted something which the Professor and I took to be an +introduction, and he put a skinny hand into mine.</p> + +<p>"You have been a long while in the Islands?" he squeaked.</p> + +<p>"Longer than I care to say," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Have you been around the spot we are making for?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I was on Penrhyn Island for three months," I answered. "I was helping a +German scientist who was studying the family habits of turtles."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Who is Mr. Leith?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Barbara?" I stammered. "Then—then there is another lady aboard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! my sister," cried the girl. "I think I hear her coming now."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But it is true that you were quoting Bunyan on the wharf when Mr. +Holman found you, isn't it?" she asked mischievously.</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't true," I spluttered. "I only asked Mr. Holman a question +to see if he was familiar with 'Pilgrim's Progress'."</p> + +<p>"Why did you ask him that?" she quizzed. "I'm sure he looks a perfectly +respectable young man."</p> + +<p>Miss Edith was smiling, but she took pity upon me at last and +endeavoured to rescue me from my tormentor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Barbara!" she cried reprovingly, "Mr. Verslun will think you are +very inquisitive. You must not pry into his private affairs."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And you don't know what they meant by their song about the white +waterfall and Black Fernando's hell?" murmured Barbara.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we must ask him again!" she cried. "There he is near the wheel. +I'll go and bring him!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What about the white waterfall?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't," growled the owner of the voice.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is all this about the white waterfall?" he repeated, after the +crooked fingers had dropped my hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's something that happened to Mr. Verslun," replied Miss Barbara.</p> + +<p>"Where?" asked Leith.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But Toni?" he growled, turning toward the two girls.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But the bare facts?" he growled.</p> + +<p>"There are no bare facts," I replied. "I covered them with fiction, and +I think Miss Herndon is going to copyright the whole."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/040.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/040.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h4>A KNIFE FROM THE DARK</h4> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Drop it," I growled; "I've had enough of the joke. By the way, what +position do you hold in the expedition?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"But what are you doing aboard?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"My uncle owns <i>The Waif</i>," 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."</p> + +<p>I glanced at his face as we turned in our walk, but he moved his head +away quickly.</p> + +<p>"So it has been pleasant?" I said.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Miss Barbara Herndon," he cried.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" I gurgled. "You took me by surprise, and I hardly knew—well, I +didn't know what had made the trip so pleasant."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And did I pass muster?" I queried.</p> + +<p>"Sure you did!" he cried enthusiastically. "Miss Barbara Herndon says +that you are true blue, and Miss Edith—"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" I growled. "The moon and something else are affecting your +brain."</p> + +<p>"But I'm sure of it," he gasped.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Some one was listening to us talking, but whoever it was he managed to +slip away while we were arguing the question."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Holman gripped my arm as I turned away, and he put a question in a tense +whisper.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of Leith?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Somehow the question did not surprise me, but I was not in a hurry to +give my opinion of the, Professor's partner.</p> + +<p>"I have only spoken a few words to him," I countered cautiously.</p> + +<p>"But your impression?" stammered the youngster. "Don't you think—well, +of course you haven't got the lay of things yet."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>Holman glanced at the Tongan at the wheel, then at the shadow patch that +had disturbed his nerves a few moments before.</p> + +<p>"He's the devil!" he whispered.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman caught my coat with his left hand as we turned, and he spoke +excitedly.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what we're after?" he queried hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"It's a scientific expedition," I replied. "That's what you and Captain +Newmarch told me, and I have not questioned any one else."</p> + +<p>"But do you know the particular line we are after?"</p> + +<p>"No," I replied.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I muttered; "and what do his daughters say?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"After Edith Herndon?" I repeated slowly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And the captain?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," stammered the youngster. "Perhaps I said too much, +but I had to speak to you."</p> + +<p>"And I'm mighty glad you did!" I cried.</p> + +<p>He gripped my hand and turned away, leaving me to my own reflections. It +was a wonderful night. The silvery sea through which <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" I asked.</p> + +<p>There was no answer. The strip of shadow broadened and narrowed as <i>The +Waif</i> plunged, but I could discern nothing. Outside the captain and +myself, the crew of <i>The Waif</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Confound it!" he cried. "What's the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"One of the Kanakas nearly cut my eye out!" I roared. "He flung a knife +at me and ducked for the f'c'stle."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why did you throw that knife?" I screamed.</p> + +<p>"I no throw knife," he muttered. "Me sleep, very tired."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Stop that business!" he shrieked.</p> + +<p>"But this devil tried to knife me!" I protested.</p> + +<p>"Let him go!" yelled Newmarch. "Do you hear me? Let him go this +instant!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Too many wonderful things happen to you!" he stammered.</p> + +<p>"Why—what do you mean?" I queried.</p> + +<p>"Never mind!" he snapped. "If you start a rough house on board this boat +I'll stop you before you get well under way."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Once out of earshot of the listening crew I determined to make another +effort to show him that my conduct was justified.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> hadn't risen in my estimation since the moment I +made the inquiry.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/052.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/052.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + + +<h4>THE STORM</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You were right about that patch of shadow last night," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"How?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"This came from it," I replied, touching the plaster with my finger as I +spoke.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I laughed, and he turned suddenly toward me. "Do you think we'll put in +anywhere in the Samoan Group?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," I replied. "Why?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 +<i>The Waif</i>.</p> + +<p>"But there is nothing to be gained by running away if we do put in to a +port," I growled.</p> + +<p>"How is that?" stammered Holman.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But you told me they insisted on coming."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was Barbara's keen eyes that detected my plaster, and I squirmed as I +saw the light of curiosity in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As if he wished to do something which would convince me of his ignorance +of the happening, he hastily changed the subject.</p> + +<p>"The captain thinks we are in for a spell of bad weather, Mr. Verslun," +he drawled; "are you of the same opinion?"</p> + +<p>"If signs go for anything we are," I replied. "We are running into a +zone of trouble."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"What?" I asked, amused at the youngster's annoyance.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. +<i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Great chunks of green water came hurtling over the rail, thundering down +upon us till <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p><i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>All through the night we raced before it, and through the following day +<i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That was me that sing," he shrieked, as I put down my head. "I tell +damn big lie you an' Miss Herndon."</p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked, amused at the peculiar manner in which he tried to +express his gratitude for the rescue of the morning.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'll see you in the morning," I roared.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Do you know that nigger you rescued?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Toni?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What about him?"</p> + +<p>"You did your heroic stunt for nothing," he remarked. "The fool can't be +found, so I guess he went overboard in the night."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I turned to Newmarch and fired a question at him.</p> + +<p>"Do you think he was helped overboard?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no," he said slowly. "Why do you think that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing," I replied. "I thought his narrow escape of the morning +would have made him careful."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Verslun, we are a wreck!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Not quite," I said, gripping her arm to steady her as <i>The Waif</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"This isn't a nice place for you, Miss Edith!" he cried.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Miss Edith!" he called.</p> + +<p>The girl turned her head sharply. "Well?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>He touched her shoulder with his big fingers that resembled talons, but +the girl made a quick side movement and slipped from his grip.</p> + +<p>"Do not touch me!" she cried fiercely. "How dare you put your hand on +me!"</p> + +<p>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. <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I looked around and saw Holman clinging to the rigging, his boyish face +wearing an expression of extreme pleasure.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/066.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/066.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h4>I MAKE A PROMISE</h4> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> were the only reminders +of the terrific storm that had swept us before it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We'll strike it in the morning," he growled.</p> + +<p>"What? Penrose Island?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, the Isle of Tears," he answered sharply.</p> + +<p>"The Isle of Tears?" I repeated.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And is it there that the Professor will conduct his search?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"You had better ask that question of Professor Herndon," he replied. "I +know nothing about what they'll do ashore."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"The captain has just told me," I said.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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 +<i>hamungas</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Well, Newmarch says we'll strike it early in the morning," I said, "and +then we'll see whether your suspicions are correct."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You will stay with the yacht, I suppose?" she questioned.</p> + +<p>"I cannot say," I replied. "Captain Newmarch hasn't spoken to me about +the matter. Does your father intend to go far inland?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And you are not afraid?" I stammered. "You do not dislike the idea of +going?"</p> + +<p>She lifted her head and looked me in the face, the big amber eyes +shining softly in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"I dread it," she said quietly. "It is foolish to say so, but—"</p> + +<p>She stopped speaking and turned her face away from me. In the little +silence that followed I heard the <i>plop plop</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"If you stay with the yacht you can do nothing," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"Then you want me to go?" I cried. "You would like me to go with——"</p> + +<p>"Father and Barbara and me," she said softly. "Mr. Holman is coming, +and if you could come too—"</p> + +<p>"I can!" I cried. "I will go with the party if you say so."</p> + +<p>"But if Captain Newmarch orders you to stay with the yacht?"</p> + +<p>"He can order away," I spluttered. "I am going where Leith is going, +that is as long as Leith accompanies you and your father."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Some one was listening to us," I explained as I returned to the girl's +side.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you want to go for?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"For the fun of the thing."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he muttered. "I'll see Leith."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Toni! Toni! Toni!" he wailed. "Toni he gone. Toni, my brother, all same +come from Suva, now him dead."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, but it can't be helped," I said. "He should have been more +careful."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"When?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Night afore last," he gasped. "Captain see him do it. Very bad thing. +Toni, my brother, all same work one time Suva."</p> + +<p>Holman joined me when I relieved the captain late in the night; I told +the youngster what I knew about the disappearance of Toni.</p> + +<p>"Who knifed him?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The big Kanaka who pulled Leith out of the scuppers when he fell +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Who says so?"</p> + +<p>"Leith pointed him out to the Professor this afternoon," answered +Holman. "I was talking to the old scientist at the time."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is it any good of attempting to convince the Professor?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going along to see what happens," I said. "If Leith refuses +to accept me I'm going just the same."</p> + +<p>Holman gripped my hand—gripped it fiercely, then he left me hurriedly.</p> + +<p>I tramped backward and forward as <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/079.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/079.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h4>THE ISLE OF TEARS</h4> + +<p>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 <i>The +Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Edith," cried the younger sister, "I wish father wouldn't go!"</p> + +<p>"So do I, dear," murmured the elder girl, "but it is useless to attempt +to persuade him to give up the quest."</p> + +<p>"But I hate the place!" cried Miss Barbara. "Don't you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Newmarch approached at the instant and squeaked out an answer to the +request I had made the previous evening.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I shall be known throughout the world inside three months," he +whispered to Leith.</p> + +<p>"In less than that," drawled the giant.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>.</p> + +<p>Newmarch gave a peculiar chuckle as he turned toward me when the party +had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Come back at once!" he shouted. "Are you coming?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I poked my head from my hiding place, and the Fijian turned quickly.</p> + +<p>"I think the captain told Soma to kill your brother," I said softly. "If +the captain didn't tell him, Leith did, Kaipi."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"But Soma?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I kill Soma when chance comes," muttered Kaipi.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Me not care about that," he grinned. "Me catch Soma, that's all."</p> + +<p>The note was exceedingly brief. It read:</p> + +<p class="i2">"The mate is following you,—NEWMARCH."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>The Fijian grinned, tried the edge of his knife blade with the ball of +his thumb, then sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Darkness came down like a suffocating blanket, and we halted.</p> + +<p>"No go farther," muttered Kaipi. "Better make fire and sleep. Catch um +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's this?" he cried. "Who the devil gave you permission to come +here?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, please let Mr. Verslun come," cried Miss Barbara. "It will make it +ever so much more pleasant."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of the stock of food," growled Leith, as if attempting +to explain his evident displeasure.</p> + +<p>"I'll go on half measure and let Mr. Verslun have the other half," +laughed Holman.</p> + +<p>"And he can have some of mine," cried Miss Barbara.</p> + +<p>"And mine," murmured Edith.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/095.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/095.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h4>THE PIT</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Soma has been here more than once," he replied. "What he doesn't know +about this place isn't worth knowing."</p> + +<p>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 archæologist 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;"> +<a href="images/098.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/098.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What should we have done?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he growled. "We should have done something though. Pity +we didn't lose Leith overboard with your friend Toni."</p> + +<p>"What's wrong now? Has anything happened?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Very much."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"But they have no interest in your silly discoveries," I cried. "They +are doing this infernal tramp to look after you. Do you hear?"</p> + +<p>"Confound you, sir!" he screamed. "Mind your own business and don't +interfere with mine!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Where the dickens are we going?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"This is the most eerie-looking patch of country that I have ever seen +in my life."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>That was how it felt to me from the moment I had left <i>The Waif</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>But I tried to rally Holman so that he would cheer up Edith Herndon and +her sister.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" gurgled the Professor.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You'll see in a moment," replied the big brute, as he walked slowly +forward, and just as he spoke, we did see.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/108.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/108.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h4>THE LEDGE OF DEATH</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But what did we climb up here for?" asked the youngster. "Did we come +for the view alone?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Holman looked around at the basalt walls that hemmed us in on both +sides, and then glanced at the pit in front.</p> + +<p>"But we can go no farther," he said.</p> + +<p>Leith's smile spread across his ugly flat face. "You are too young to +know everything," he sneered.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But how can we?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Leith stood for a moment before replying, then he moved closer to the +edge of the crater and pointed down.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Leith noticed that our glances were directed upon the peculiar polished +portion of the rim, and his grin broadened.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman took a great breath of air and turned savagely upon Leith.</p> + +<p>"What sort of a fool game are you up to?" he cried. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>Leith's lower jaw came forward menacingly. "You had better hold your +tongue!" he roared. "If you don't I'll—I'll——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You'll do what?" asked the youngster coolly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But the young ladies?" I inquired, looking at Leith. "Do you expect +them to go down on to that path?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"No danger," he cried. "All boys go over here before they could call +themselves men. That long, long time ago."</p> + +<p>The Professor grabbed his notebook as he heard the explanation, and he +immediately proceeded to deluge the Kanaka with questions.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" he squeaked. "You say all the boys had to climb over +there?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And they went over here?" he cried, his eyes wide open as he gazed at +the edge of the crater.</p> + +<p>"Right over here," grinned Soma. "See rock mighty slippery here. All +boys' hands and feet do that. Polish it mighty fine."</p> + +<p>"But surely this test is not carried on at the present time?" cried the +scientist. "When was this wonderful custom in force?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>The youngster was not lacking in courage, and he stood up boldly as the +bully screamed out his threats.</p> + +<p>"I won't go back," he said quietly. "At least I won't go back alone."</p> + +<p>Leith's big fingers crooked ominously as he glared at Holman, but Edith +Herndon prevented the conflict that was imminent.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The younger girl took a glance at the terrifying abyss and shrank back +to Edith's side.</p> + +<p>"Wait till the morning," she whispered.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" asked the Professor.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/119.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/119.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h4>INTO THE VALLEY OF ECHOES</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I hope you slept well?" he grinned.</p> + +<p>"I didn't," she replied. "I had dreams of that place, and they were +perfectly horrid dreams."</p> + +<p>"Well, dreams don't amount to much," he replied, "and this sunshine will +soon make you forget them."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now who goes first?" asked Leith.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The big bully immediately noticed my movement, and he waved his hand as +a signal for me to go back.</p> + +<p>"But I'm coming," I snapped.</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Go back at once!" roared Leith. "I will see to the safety of the +ladies."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"All good people in this party," he cried. "That's mighty plain."</p> + +<p>The Professor dived for his lead pencil. He had a scent for copy that a +New York reporter would have envied.</p> + +<p>"How is that, Soma?" he spluttered.</p> + +<p>"Wizard men say so," grinned the Kanaka. "Wizard men tell much truth."</p> + +<p>"But what did the wizard men say?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he inquired. "I didn't hear."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"It is the Valley of Echoes," said Leith. "The cliffs throw back the +sound in a marvellous manner."</p> + +<p>"I'll not laugh again, not in this spot," murmured Barbara Herndon. +"Those noises chilled my blood."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eye +upon Soma and the other five carriers, whispered a message.</p> + +<p>"Soma much friend of big man."</p> + +<p>"How do you know?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>"Talk to him out back of camp last night," he murmured. "Me make believe +sleep, me watch. I think I kill him to-day."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/131.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/131.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h4>A MIDNIGHT ALARM</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 archæologist 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>shik-shuck</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Holman, who had been staring in silence at the fire for some twenty +minutes, turned toward me after the Professor had retired.</p> + +<p>"Sleepy?" asked the youngster.</p> + +<p>"Worse than that," I muttered.</p> + +<p>"Let's turn in."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman was sitting up on his leafy bed, and I put a question +breathlessly as I jerked myself upright.</p> + +<p>"What's up?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't he say that this place was uninhabited?" asked the youngster.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You weren't dreaming?"</p> + +<p>"Dreaming? Rot! I haven't closed my eyes since we retired!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It might be one of the niggers," whispered Holman. "Let us see."</p> + +<p>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 <i>tolmas</i> and the <i>langis</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Look!" he gurgled. "Look! there he is again!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Take the two front pillars!" whispered Holman. "I'll watch the two back +ones. Come on!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A low whistle from Holman pierced the silence, and I answered.</p> + +<p>"Come up here," he cried softly. "He's given us the slip."</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Do you think he slipped down while I was climbing the tree?" asked +Holman.</p> + +<p>"I'm certain he didn't," I answered. "It would have been impossible."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Better keep it to ourselves," growled Holman.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/142.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/142.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h4>KAIPI PERFORMS A SERVICE</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I am acquainted with a number of persons who would look well hanging to +a limb," retorted the Professor, as he rubbed his ankles.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Five babies for kindergarten. Arrange everything. Meet at the Long +Gallery."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" gasped Holman.</p> + +<p>The Professor looked up in mild astonishment. "Who?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Leith!" cried the boy. "Where has he gone?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Stop chattering and read that!" I interrupted. "Your precious friend +sent this ahead by Soma. He dropped it and we got hold of it."</p> + +<p>Holman struck a match and held it over the scrap of paper while the +scientist stared at it through his thick glasses.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he queried. "What has this nonsense to do with me?"</p> + +<p>"The five babies," snapped Holman.</p> + +<p>"Five babies?" repeated the Professor. "I know nothing about babies!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're the biggest baby of the five!" he roared. "You're a madman! Come +away, Verslun; it's no use arguing with him!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You're not sorry I found you on that pile of pearl shell?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry?" I cried. "I'm glad, man—I'm infernally glad."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What can we do?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You go then," I remarked. "I'll wait here till you come back."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Kaipi," I murmured.</p> + +<p>The Fijian crept quietly to the spot where I was hiding.</p> + +<p>"I come for you," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Funny things much," he gurgled. "Light on mountain, no see from here. +Me watch it, think it something bad. Come, I'll show you."</p> + +<p>Holman returned at that moment and I explained what Kaipi had just told +me.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But the girls?" I cried.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Me see light flash way over there," he whispered. "You wait and see."</p> + +<p>We crouched down and waited. The minutes passed slowly, but the black +barrier away to the east gave no sign of life.</p> + +<p>"I think Kaipi must have sighted a star," muttered Holman. "There is +nothing—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/154.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/154.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h4>THE DEVIL DANCERS</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"This is the spot," gasped Holman. "This big tree cluster was just to +the right of the place where the light was flashed."</p> + +<p>"That's so," I remarked, "but how are we to get up to the point where +the signal came from?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There's a ledge here," he murmured. "I think we can climb up from it. +Hurry along, and I'll give you a hand."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's easy climbing just above us," whispered Holman. "Wait till we get +Kaipi."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A small piece of shale hit me on the shoulder after a long wait, and I +turned my face upward.</p> + +<p>"Verslun!" breathed the strained voice of the youngster. "Are you +there?"</p> + +<p>"Well?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Come on, Kaipi," I whispered, and the Fijian climbed nimbly upon me and +moved up into the void above.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That's good," whispered Holman. "Don't puff so hard, man! We're too +close to take any chances."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"See the streak of light through that split in the rock?" he whispered. +"Look in front of you! Well, they're inside."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They had circled the floor about ten times when Holman tugged my coat +and I wriggled back from the crevice.</p> + +<p>"What's up?" My lips were dry as I put the question.</p> + +<p>"Kaipi."</p> + +<p>"Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" shrieked the Fijian. "Me no see dance like that. Me die if I +stay."</p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"It is 'tivo'—death dance," gasped Kaipi. "Wizard men dance it. +Something going happen, damn bad."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We must get there!"</p> + +<p>"Don't lose your head about it," I remarked. "Keep cool and we'll win +out in the long run."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We can do it from here, Verslun," he cried. "I see a path to the top. +Come along, man!"</p> + +<p>"What about Kaipi?" I gasped. "We'll never find our way back here."</p> + +<p>"Let him sit there," he snorted. "Hurry or the moon will be under the +clouds before we cross the cliff."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/168.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/168.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h4>TOMBS OF SILENCE</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Get up!" he cried savagely. "We must kill the devil before morning."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"If—if we could find the place and block the devil and all his gang +inside," gasped Holman.</p> + +<p>"That's too good a thing to entertain," I spluttered.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>It was a path, sure enough. It wound in and out among the rocks, a +narrow beaten trail, singularly white against the black surroundings.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go in?" whispered Holman.</p> + +<p>"As you like," I answered.</p> + +<p>He moved toward the mouth of the burrow, then stopped and turned toward +me. "What time is it?"</p> + +<p>"It's ten minutes of midnight," I replied.</p> + +<p>"We've got six hours," he whispered. "Come along, we'll chance it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We stopped and moved together instinctively. Holman put his mouth close +to my ear.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It might be a cavern leading into the one that runs out to the face of +the cliff," I replied.</p> + +<p>"But how are we to cross it?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you. I'm afraid if we leave this opening that we'll get +lost."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Stay where you are," he said. "If I get lost I'll whistle softly and +you can signal back to me."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was about twenty minutes before Holman returned. He whistled ever so +softly, and when I replied he came toward me hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Gave you a shock, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Why, they're skulls!" I breathed hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, what are we to do?"</p> + +<p>"Wait here."</p> + +<p>"But if he doesn't come this way?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;"> +<a href="images/176.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/176.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Leith broke the silence that followed. "What was that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"A bat," answered Soma.</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," droned Leith. "Lift up the light."</p> + +<p>Soma raised the lantern high above his head, and as he did so Holman +fired.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Leith's voice roared an order. "Put out the light!"</p> + +<p>Soma immediately crashed the lantern upon the ground, and I heard Holman +groan.</p> + +<p>"I missed him!" he whispered. "Move along a little, Verslun; they've got +a line on our position."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I fired immediately, and the soft <i>plop</i> of a body settling into the dry +dust upon the floor convinced me that I had settled one of our enemies.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Holman!" I shrieked. "Where are you, Holman? The passage is here! This +way, quick!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/183.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/183.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h4>BACK TO THE CAMP</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"The devil!" I muttered. "The fiendish brute!"</p> + +<p>A chuckle came from a boulder beside the track, and Holman's cheery +voice set my pulses beating.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"How did you get out?" I gasped as we rushed on together. "I thought I +left you in the cavern."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that Leith has made for the camp?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman picked himself up and looked around. The pink flush had deepened +in the east, and nearby objects were discernible.</p> + +<p>"By all the gods! we are back on the ledge near the crevice!" he cried. +"Come along and we'll hunt for Kaipi."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" he cried. "I'm not hurt, Verslun. Get me on my feet, man. +Quick! For the love of God, quick!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"He'll beat us!" gasped Holman. "I'm all in, Verslun; that fall has +finished me."</p> + +<p>"Keep at it!" I said. "We must be near the camp by now."</p> + +<p>"We've walked three miles," muttered Holman. "We've lost our way."</p> + +<p>"No, we haven't!" I cried. "We've struck a bad patch, but we'll get +there soon."</p> + +<p>The youngster clenched his teeth and endeavoured to forget the agony of +his leg, but the effort taxed his courage.</p> + +<p>"We'll do it," I said. "Don't let the brute beat us."</p> + +<p>"I—I won't!" he stammered. "If it was anything but my leg! Verslun!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You get ahead," he cried hoarsely. "Leave me, Verslun! Leave me here!"</p> + +<p>"But I'd never find you again," I protested.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Leave me here!" he screamed. "Go ahead by yourself, Verslun! What's the +use of taking me?"</p> + +<p>"You're coming, so you can stop kicking," I muttered. "Take your fingers +out of my eyes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/193.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/193.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h4>A DAY OF SKIRMISHING</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm ready, Verslun," he muttered. "Which way did they go?"</p> + +<p>I pointed to the marks made in the soft ground by the shoes of the two +girls, and Holman limped forward.</p> + +<p>"But we can't follow this fashion," I protested.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But this is puerile," I protested. "We'll be running our heads into the +noose."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if we do. I want to get near Leith."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But what will happen to the girls?"</p> + +<p>"Will our death prevent it?" I snapped. "If we rush after him in the +open we'll throw our chances away."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"'We're prisoners now,' muttered Holman, reading the few words in a +whisper. 'The brute has declared himself. Barbara.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Holman. "If we don't catch up with him I'll go mad!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"They've come to tell Leith that we have escaped," whispered Holman.</p> + +<p>"And they'll be on our trail the moment they give him the news."</p> + +<p>"All right, we'll be ready for them. How much ammunition have you?</p> + +<p>"Three cartridges," I replied.</p> + +<p>"And I have four. We must make those seven—look out! There's another +beggar coming!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +archæologist, and it was evident that it was at that moment Leith had +declared himself as Barbara Herndon stated in her note.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We must try to find the path," whispered Holman. "This delay will give +Leith a chance to get to the hills."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/207.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/207.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h4>THE STONE TABLE</h4> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"I will not sign the papers!" cried the scientist. "I want my liberty, +sir! You are a scoundrel! Where are my daughters?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Go on," mocked Leith.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But you will admit when all is over that I have shown you some +wonderful things," sneered Leith.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How?" asked the scientist.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman's voice put a question that roused me from my half stupor.</p> + +<p>"Did I kill him?" cried the young fellow. "Tell me!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Father! father! Where are you, father?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Where are they taking us?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"God knows," I gasped.</p> + +<p>"It's my fault, Verslun."</p> + +<p>"Why?" I groaned.</p> + +<p>"I missed him! I missed him! I——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Are they there?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I murmured.</p> + +<p>"What are they doing?"</p> + +<p>"Sitting in a line staring at the hills."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it?" he whispered.</p> + +<p>"They're resting perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Not them! They look as if they're hatching some new villainy."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Seems to me that I've seen that tree before," muttered Holman.</p> + +<p>"I hold the same impression," I said.</p> + +<p>"And those rocks," remarked the youngster. "Why, we're going back to +<i>The Waif!</i>"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/218.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/218.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3> + +<h4>BENEATH THE CENTIPEDE</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Say," murmured Holman, "do you remember what the Professor said about +this place the other night when he was speaking about sacrificial +altars?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It was," I replied. I didn't feel disposed to trust myself to make a +longer comment at that moment.</p> + +<p>"Well, they're going to start operations," said the youngster. "We're +going to the top, Verslun."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Looks as if something is coming, Verslun," cried Holman. "I was a fool +to miss him, old man, but I guess—oh, Gee!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Toni all the same brother to me," muttered the Fijian, dimly +understanding the meaning of the remark; "me kill Soma pretty damn +soon."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Must be waiting for him to come to them," said Holman. "We'll give them +a few minutes longer."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My knife!" cried Kaipi. "He knocked my knife down!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/231.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/231.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> + +<h4>BARBARA'S MESSENGER</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We plunged on till nearly midnight, then Holman called a halt.</p> + +<p>"We must sleep," he said. "One can watch while the other two get some +rest."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>"Some one go by, much hurry," murmured the Fijian.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Kaipi's ear was still to the ground, and the anxious look upon his face +convinced us that some one was close.</p> + +<p>"Coming back again," breathed the Islander. "One man, walk slow."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" asked Holman. "Get back, Kaipi, and let me see."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Me want you," he said.</p> + +<p>"Quite so," muttered Holman, "but I got you first."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why—who—how the devil did you get this?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Me only show you ring, that's all!" he cried. "You look, know little +missee send me, ring mine all time. You give back."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"My ring all time," protested Maru. "That my pay fight mighty good for +you."</p> + +<p>"Give it up to him," I advised. "He's only an overgrown child, and he +has set his mind on it."</p> + +<p>"But, Verslun, I know she wouldn't do that!" protested the lover. +"Barbara sent me this as——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know," I cried, "but we want fighters now, and Maru is a pretty +athletic person."</p> + +<p>"Me damn good fighter!" cried the Raretongan. "Me plentee good fighter +if me get ring."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"One man go by here pretty short time ago," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"Native?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, him wear shoes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I gasped. "Why it's——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Stay here!" he yelled, raising his voice above the tumult that seemed +to be coming out of the heavens. "Keep close much!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Maru," I whispered, "go back and get Holman. I'll wait here till you +come."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/242.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/242.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3> + +<h4>LEITH SCORES</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He's deaf," I said; "there's a good chance of roping him in if we could +scale the cliff."</p> + +<p>"Me climb!" said Maru. "Him not hear. Me climb all alonga track, drop +down, breakem him neck."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>.</p> + +<p>"Caesar's Ghost! Why doesn't he hurry?" cried Holman. "That madman looks +as if he's going to change his camping ground!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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> + +<p>"P'raps we're up against something," whispered Holman, "Feel if there's +anything in front, Verslun."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What'll we do?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>"Get back," I answered. "He's either fooled us or he's lost his way."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>plop plop</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'll have you yet!" he cried. "I'll choke you, you devil!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The <i>plop plop</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"He's turned!" cried Holman. "We'll get him, Verslun! After the—O God! +<i>Look out</i>!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/256.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/256.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3> + +<h4>THE BLACK KINDERGARTEN</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How far did we roll?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>"About half a mile," I replied.</p> + +<p>"But straight, Verslun! What do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Over a hundred yards; I'm certain of that."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going to climb back."</p> + +<p>"You can't do it!" I gasped. "That stuff is like quicksand."</p> + +<p>"All the same I'm going to make a try."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"We did our best," I said.</p> + +<p>"Our best?" repeated Holman. "And the man who tells you that he did his +best as an excuse for failure should be shot, Verslun."</p> + +<p>"We couldn't tell that this infernal trench was in front," I grumbled.</p> + +<p>"Then we shouldn't have chased him like a brace of madmen. I wonder if +Maru and Kaipi came near it?"</p> + +<p>"We might call out, perhaps they'd hear."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"They turned back," said Holman. "They had sense enough to stay with One +Eye; we hadn't."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't we wait at the door of that place till the brute came out?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>I had no answer to give to the question, and after an interval of +silence he fired others at me.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But where are they? Where has the devil put them?"</p> + +<p>"God alone knows!" I cried. "Here, it's my turn to take the lead."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After a minute of intense silence he put a question.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear anything?"</p> + +<p>"Did you?" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Verslun, did you hear?" he whispered, gripping my arm. "I heard her +speak."</p> + +<p>"I thought I did," I breathed. "Perhaps—perhaps it was an echo."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/262.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/262.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3> + +<h4>TOGETHER AGAIN</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"This is the place you mentioned to me the night you left the camp," +said the Professor.</p> + +<p>"We mentioned?" repeated Holman in amazement. "We didn't know the place +existed till we rolled into it!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"The Black Kindergarten!" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And food?" Holman put the question, but the words seemed to come to me +from a great distance.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 archæologist. 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 <i>The Waif</i> when I made an offer of my services.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We will lose ourselves, and we will never be able to find our way back +here to get the food," he cried.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There might be another way out of the place," said Holman. "Can Verslun +and I make the attempt and leave you three here?"</p> + +<p>"No, no!" cried Barbara. "Please stay here with us!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"No, we have not," replied the Professor, his thin, quavering voice +sounding strangely weak after the deep-throated bellow of the bully on +top.</p> + +<p>"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! <i>The Waif</i> +will run us up to the German missionary station while you take charge +here for your affectionate son-in-law."</p> + +<p>I opened my mouth to fling an answer at the taunting scoundrel, but +Holman surmised my intention and begged me to hold my tongue.</p> + +<p>"They'll get no food if you cry out!" he whispered. "Don't speak to him, +man!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That rope might prove useful," whispered Holman. "Feel around and see +if you can get hold of it before he pulls it up."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I have it!" murmured Holman. "Wait till he unhooks the bundle."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now!" whispered the youngster. "A big pull! We might bring the nigger +through the hole!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll never get any," said Edith Herndon quietly. "I pray that God +will show us the way out of this place."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/272.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/272.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3> + +<h4>THE WHITE WATERFALL</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is there any choice of direction?" asked Holman, pausing after he had +taken half a dozen steps.</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," I said. "Unless some one has an intuition regarding +the path to liberty."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Edith!" she shrieked. "Edith! Edith! Where are you?"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Great God!" I cried. "Where did we lose her? What way did we come?"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"What'll we do?" cried the Professor. "Do something! Quick! Find her! +Find her!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Holman gripped my arm when I had worked myself into an insane frenzy, +and he begged me to be quiet.</p> + +<p>"Barbara thought she heard an answer," he cried. "Listen! There it is +again!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"To the what?" I questioned.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><i>"It is the White Waterfall!"</i> 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!"</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/280.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/280.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII</h3> + +<h4>THE WIZARDS' SEAT</h4> + +<p>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 <i>The Waif</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"How many paces?" asked the Professor.</p> + +<p>"Sixty!" I roared; and then, seized with temporary insanity, I chanted +the song of the Maori at the top of my voice:</p> + +<div class="poem" style= "margin-left: 30%;"> +<p style= "margin-left: -5px;">"Sixty paces to the left,</p> +<p>Sixty paces to the left,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven,</p> +<p>That's the way to heaven out</p> +<p>Of Black Fernando's hell."</p> +</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"They said to the left, didn't they?" asked Holman.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the left side will be the one upon our left hand when facing +the fall?" said Holman.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," I stammered. "Let us move up close to the side of the +water."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Fifty-six! Fifty-seven! Fifty-eight!——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Fifty-nine! <i>Sixty</i>!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing," muttered Holman. "I counted right, didn't I?"</p> + +<p>"I think so," I answered huskily.</p> + +<p>"Sixty paces exactly, and here's the wall alongside us."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well, if there's nothing here I'm going back to get a drink," said +Holman.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Hadn't I better go with you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not this trip," I answered. "I've just got a feeling that I'd like to +see where it leads to. Hold tight!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It opens into the Vermilion Pit!" I gasped. "I can't see how we can +climb out, but there's hope—there's hope!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We won't be five minutes!" I cried. "Stay where you are till we +signal."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For a minute Holman breathed hungrily of the hot air, then he attempted +to discover our exact position in the crater.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I remember," I answered. "We must be nearly on a level with the Ledge."</p> + +<p>"If we could look out from under this projecting piece of rock," +muttered the youngster.</p> + +<p>"It's risky."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Holman?" I cried. "Are we saved? Tell me!"</p> + +<p>He slid hurriedly back to safety and pounded the rock above his head +with his bare fists.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what this is?" he yelled. "Do you know?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It is the Ledge of Death!" he shouted. "There is only six inches of +rock above us!"</p> + +<p>"Then we're saved!" I cried.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I nodded my head. I was unable to speak at that moment.</p> + +<p>"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——"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hold me tight, Verslun!" he cried. "Hold me tight, man! <i>I have him!</i>"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:50%;"> +<a href="images/292.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/292.png" alt="" /></a></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>The youngster pulled himself together after the silence had settled upon +the place like a film.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:80%;"> +<a href="images/294.png"> +<img width = "100%" src="images/294.png" alt="" /></a></div> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3> + +<h4>THE WAY TO HEAVEN</h4> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Quick!" cried Holman. "The rope!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"He kill Toni!" he cried. "Toni all same brother to me. Toni work with +me long time Suva."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Me want no pay from you!" he cried. "Me work for you all same +nothing!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the second day from the pit we reached the shore of +the little bay, but <i>The Waif</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>It was the missionary schooner <i>Messenger of Light</i> that saw our beacon +upon the island on the fourth day after we had reached the spot where we +had landed from <i>The Waif</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"And the 'Frisco boats call there," murmured Barbara, "Joy! Joy! Joy!"</p> + +<p>The moon was whitening the sleeping Pacific when Edith and I stood +looking over the taffrail as the <i>Messenger of Light</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"Edith," I whispered, as I took her hand, "I am a common sailorman, but +if you could love me I—I—"</p> + +<p>I stopped in confusion, and as she had done on a former occasion, she +came to the rescue of my stammering tongue.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<h4>THE END</h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +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-h.htm or 10862-h.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. 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