I MAKE A PROMISE
The morning following the unpleasant incident with Leith broke clear and
sunny. The Pacific, as if tired after its mad pranks of the preceding
three days, was a shimmering stretch of placid blue water, and the
shattered spars and loose cordage of _The Waif_ were the only reminders
of the terrific storm that had swept us before it.
Captain Newmarch set all hands at work to repair the damage, and before
midday we were bowling along under as much canvas as we could spread.
The storm being directly from the southwest had not carried us from our
course, and Newmarch chuckled when he had taken an observation.
"We'll strike it in the morning," he growled.
"What? Penrose Island?" I asked.
"No, the Isle of Tears," he answered sharply.
"The Isle of Tears?" I repeated.
"That's what I said," he remarked sourly. "And now you know as much as I
know. It was kept a little secret by the orders of my employers, but we
are so close to the spot now that I don't think it will matter if I let
the cat out of the bag."
"And is it there that the Professor will conduct his search?" I asked.
"You had better ask that question of Professor Herndon," he replied. "I
know nothing about what they'll do ashore."
He left the poop before I had time to put another question to him, and
as I walked up and down I turned over in my mind the tiny morsel of
information I had received. The captain's secrecy was peculiar, to say
the least, and as I reasoned that Professor Herndon knew absolutely
nothing of the Islands, it was quite evident that the orders prohibiting
Newmarch from making known the exact destination of the yacht had come
from Leith. It was not the first time I had heard of the Isle of Tears.
Strange stories floated across the Pacific concerning the little islet
east of the Suvaroff Group, and out of the reticule of the mind I
attempted to drag these stories and piece them together during the
minutes that passed after Newmarch had given me the information. They
were not pleasant stories as I remembered them at that moment. The
island had a "past." The mention of it brought hazy recollections to
natives--recollections that were too misty to put into words, but which
the untutored mind connected with happenings that were anything but
pleasant. And I recalled a night at "Tonga Pete's" place on the Rue de
Rivoli at Papeete, when a sailor from a copra schooner in the bay, who
had been marooned upon the island by Captain "Bully" Hayes, told a wild,
weird story of unexplainable happenings that he had witnessed during the
two days and two nights he had spent ashore.
Holman came hurrying upon deck as I was endeavouring to remember all the
story that the sailor had told, and the youngster immediately rushed me
with the news.
"The captain has just told me," I said.
"Well, Leith has just given the information out in the cabin," he cried.
"They must have decided to give it out at the same moment."
"But the Professor?" I asked. "Surely he knew. Do you mean to say that
he was ignorant of the fact that it was the Isle of Tears and not
Penrose Island that we were making for?"
Holman laughed at my question. "You haven't spoken much to him, Verslun.
He couldn't remember the name of a place three minutes. He only knows
that there are archaeological treasures on this island we are going to,
and he doesn't care two cents about its name. Leith has told him some
tall stories about the camp, judging by the way the old man's eyes shine
when he mentions it. Yesterday he read me Leith's description of stone
_hamungas_ and things that are supposed to have been built before Julius
Caesar invaded Britain, and he's pop-eyed with joy as he thinks how
he'll yank Fame by the tail when he gets on the ground and snapshots the
affairs. Gee! I'm glad I haven't got a kink for digging up relics and
dodging about places that went to smash thousands of years ago. A vice
like that is more expensive than the poker habit."
"Well, Newmarch says we'll strike it early in the morning," I said, "and
then we'll see whether your suspicions are correct."
"I'm infernally afraid they are," snapped the youngster. "I wouldn't
care ten cents about the brute only that the girls are aboard. I felt
sorry when I saw him climb to his feet yesterday. If you hit him again
hit him with something that will crack his skull. He's a devil, Verslun,
and before we are much older we will find it out."
I laughed at his gloomy forebodings, and as Miss Barbara Herndon came on
deck at that moment he raced away and left me to my own meditations.
My thoughts were mixed. I had pleasant and unpleasant ones. If Leith
was the scoundrel that Holman suspected, the two girls were in danger,
and now as we neared the island where they would leave the yacht to
accompany their father, the clutch of fear was upon me. On _The Waif_ I
felt that I had some little power, but on land, more especially on the
lonely island toward which we were heading, that feeling of
protectorship which the sailorman has for his passengers would be lost.
If Leith knew the island, and it was evident that he had visited it
before, any villainy that he contemplated would be held in check till he
was ashore and in command of the expedition and I would be powerless.
I recognized that Holman's fears were without solid foundation. They
were transmitted through Barbara Herndon, but I also recognized that the
elder sister would hardly support the statements unless she had good
grounds for her anxiety. Her woman's intuition had branded Leith's
motives in bringing the Professor into the Islands as bad, and the
sallow-faced giant could not erase the impression. The actual reason for
trickery was a matter of speculation. Professor Herndon was wealthy; it
was his money that had fitted out the expedition, but how Leith expected
to benefit himself by treachery was more than I could tell. Still, try
as I would to fight off the impressions that Holman's tongue had fixed
within my mind, I was unable to alter the opinion I had formed of the
man the moment I met him. There was an atmosphere about the yacht that
was unexplainable. Try as I could to find legitimate grounds for fears I
could not. The Professor was a scientist who wished to study certain
things the whereabouts of which were known to Leith. Apparently the
Professor was satisfied with the bargain he had made. Leith, as the two
girls had informed Holman, had called upon their father at the Langham
Hotel in Wynyard Square, Sydney, and, after fascinating the old man with
his stories, had presented his credentials and made a bargain with him
which resulted in the chartering of the yacht. His former life was a
mystery that he guarded jealously from the probes which the girls had
skilfully endeavoured to use. It was clear that he had spent many years
in the Islands, but that fact is not one that is generally put forward
as a recommendation of good character. The South Sea holds a large
percentage of the nimble people who manage to be in another spot when
Dame Justice throws her lariat. The Law of the Fringe has made curiosity
a criminal offence, and a new name covers more than charity.
I had had little chance of speaking to Edith Herndon since the moment I
came aboard, but I determined, after I had looked at the matter from
every side, that I would ask her point blank if I could be of any
assistance. Leith's face was the only prop he put forward as a support
to his claims of respectability, and his face betrayed him.
My chance came early that evening. A big tropical moon rose out of Asia
and spread a silvery wash upon the ocean. Professor Herndon and his
eldest daughter were leaning over the rail, but the moment I joined them
the old man informed us that he had to see to his scientific outfit so
that everything would be in readiness for the landing on the following
morning, and he hurried off and left us together.
The girl did not speak for a few minutes, and I made no attempt to break
the silence. Somehow I felt that her intuition had already told her that
I wished to speak about the happenings of the morrow, and her opening
remark proved that my surmise was correct.
"You will stay with the yacht, I suppose?" she questioned.
"I cannot say," I replied. "Captain Newmarch hasn't spoken to me about
the matter. Does your father intend to go far inland?"
"Father has just told me that the actual distance is not great, but the
travelling is very hard. It seems that it is only a few miles to the
spot where Mr. Leith says that father can see all the sights and obtain
all the specimens he desires, but those few miles will take us four days
to travel. There are all kinds of obstacles in the way."
"And you are not afraid?" I stammered. "You do not dislike the idea of
going?"
She lifted her head and looked me in the face, the big amber eyes
shining softly in the moonlight.
"I dread it," she said quietly. "It is foolish to say so, but--"
She stopped speaking and turned her face away from me. In the little
silence that followed I heard the _plop plop_ of the waves against the
side of the yacht. A native chanted a Samoan love song in the fo'c'stle,
but that and the soft whine of the pulleys were the only sounds that
disturbed the night. We seemed such a long way from civilization at that
minute, and a great pity for the girl's plight gave me sufficient
courage to make a proffer of my services.
"Miss Herndon," I spluttered, "if I could do anything to help you,
please tell me. I might help you if you wish. Tell me what you think is
best."
"If you stay with the yacht you can do nothing," she murmured.
"Then you want me to go?" I cried. "You would like me to go with----"
"Father and Barbara and me," she said softly. "Mr. Holman is coming,
and if you could come too--"
"I can!" I cried. "I will go with the party if you say so."
"But if Captain Newmarch orders you to stay with the yacht?"
"He can order away," I spluttered. "I am going where Leith is going,
that is as long as Leith accompanies you and your father."
Something moved on the top of the galley as I put my resolution into
words, and I sprang up quickly. The moon made every inch of the yacht as
bright as day, yet I was not quick enough in my rush. A tin pan, knocked
down by the eavesdropper, rolled across the deck, but the spy had fled.
"Some one was listening to us," I explained as I returned to the girl's
side.
"I am sorry then that I asked you to accompany us," she murmured. "I am
dragging you into our troubles, Mr. Verslun, and it is not right."
"Hush!" I cried. "Your troubles are mine just because you are a woman
out on the very fringe of the earth where you can get no one else to
help you bear them. You see I can claim a right in this spot. This is
the jumping off place of the world down here, and an offer of assistance
must not be refused."
She stood in front of me, a tall, splendid figure, the moonlight
silvering the piled masses of hair and giving one the impression that
her head was surrounded by a shining halo. Suddenly she put out her hand
and took mine.
"I accept your offer gladly," she said softly. "You are very, very kind,
Mr. Verslun. It may be, as you say, the jumping off place of the world
down here at the very outposts of civilization, but the power that
protects one in the crowded cities is surely here as well. Good-night,
friend."
It was an hour after the time when Miss Herndon went below that I asked
the captain's permission to go along with the expedition. He plucked his
scrawny beard with a nervous hand as he stood staring at me.
"What the devil do you want to go for?" he asked.
"For the fun of the thing."
"I don't know," he muttered. "I'll see Leith."
He turned away and I walked for'ard. The beauty of the night was
extraordinary. The yacht seemed to be veneered with a soft luminous
paint that gave us the appearance of a ghostly ship skimming over a
ghostly ocean.
At the top of the fo'c'stle ladder I found a native stretched full
length and sobbing mightily. He walloped his head against the planks
when I endeavoured to get him upon his feet, and the sobs shook his
frame.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Toni! Toni! Toni!" he wailed. "Toni he gone. Toni, my brother, all same
come from Suva, now him dead."
"I'm sorry, but it can't be helped," I said. "He should have been more
careful."
The native lifted himself from the deck and glanced around fearfully.
Satisfied that there were no listeners he dried his eyes and crawled
upon his knees to the spot where I was standing. "He not washed
overboard," he whispered. "Soma stick one knife in him, then he tip him
over. Me see him, very much afraid."
"When?" I asked.
"Night afore last," he gasped. "Captain see him do it. Very bad thing.
Toni, my brother, all same work one time Suva."
Holman joined me when I relieved the captain late in the night; I told
the youngster what I knew about the disappearance of Toni.
"Who knifed him?" he asked.
"The big Kanaka who pulled Leith out of the scuppers when he fell
yesterday."
"Holy smoke!" cried the boy. "I'd like to get the strength of things on
board this boat. Why, that big nigger is going to be the guide of the
expedition on shore."
"Who says so?"
"Leith pointed him out to the Professor this afternoon," answered
Holman. "I was talking to the old scientist at the time."
I whistled softly. If Soma was a henchman of Leith's it was clear to me
why the captain had shielded him the night he jerked the knife at me
when I dropped the pin upon his woolly head, but why Toni had been put
away was a mystery.
"Is it any good of attempting to convince the Professor?" I asked.
"Not a bit," snapped Holman. "The girls have been imploring him to turn
back this last three days while we were stuck in the cabin, but he won't
listen to them. He's a maniac, that's what he is. He doesn't know what
those two women are suffering through his darned foolishness, and if he
did know it wouldn't trouble him. If you want the real extract of
selfishness you must make a puncture in a scientific guy with a hobby,
and you can get as much as you want."
"Well, I'm going along to see what happens," I said. "If Leith refuses
to accept me I'm going just the same."
Holman gripped my hand--gripped it fiercely, then he left me hurriedly.
I tramped backward and forward as _The Waif_ sailed steadily through the
waves of glittering mercury. A few days before, when I was an occupant
of "The Rathole" in Levuka, life seemed to be empty and cold, but a
wonderful change had come in those few days. Although I had not spoken
to Edith Herndon more than half a dozen times, it appeared to me that it
was those few short conversations that had chased the loneliness and
morbid thoughts from my mind. Her very presence stimulated me in a
manner that I could not express, and as I stared out across the
moon-whitened ocean I started nervously at the thought which had sprung
suddenly into my brain. It was an insane thought, and I tried to laugh
it away. Edith Herndon was as far above me as the moon was above the
waves that were silvered by her beams. I pictured myself lying like a
beachcomber upon the pile of pearl shell when the strange chant of the
Maori and the dead Toni concerning "the way to heaven out of Black
Fernando's hell" had come to my ears, and I blessed the new influence
which had come into my life.
"My way to heaven lies in this direction," I soliloquized, and the
quivering yacht went bounding on as I allowed wild dreams to race
unchecked through my brain.
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