KAIPI PERFORMS A SERVICE
The Professor used a roll of films in snap-shotting the stone table
while we were breaking camp. He photographed it from every point of the
compass, and made a magnificent effort to dislocate his collarbone by
falling from a tree up which Holman had urged him to climb so that he
could get a view of the upper surface. In his mad pursuit of antiquities
the Professor forgot that tree climbing was an accomplishment that he
had never mastered properly in the days of his youth, and our departure
was somewhat delayed by the shock which he received from the fall. The
camera fell upon the pile of leaves which Leith had used as a mattress,
and it escaped with abrasions that were microscopical compared to those
received by the Professor, who glared angrily at Holman as Edith Herndon
attended to his injuries.
"I thought you could climb," murmured the youngster. "'Pon my word I
did. I wouldn't have urged you to get up there if I didn't think you
could hang to a limb."
"I am acquainted with a number of persons who would look well hanging to
a limb," retorted the Professor, as he rubbed his ankles.
"Same here," said Holman, unperturbed by the sharp retort. "When I think
over their actions, Professor, I wonder how they escaped being suspended
from such places. Especially when you consider that trees are
plentiful."
We made slow progress during the morning. The Professor's accident
robbed him of a lot of the nimbleness which had been noticeable during
the two preceding days, and the other members of the expedition had to
move at a pace that would suit his stiff limbs.
"I'm unlucky," whispered Holman, as he sat beside me at the midday halt.
"I tried to show him how he could get a good snapshot, and now he's as
poisonous as a red-necked cobra just because he was silly enough to skin
his shins."
We crossed the lowest part of the valley during the early afternoon,
and commenced to ascend gradually toward the black walls on the far
side. Leith had remarked at the lunch table that we would probably reach
our destination on the following morning, and the information brought a
thrill of expectation in spite of the suspicions we entertained. The
undefined dread had upset our nerves, and I think the two girls, as well
as Holman and myself, were looking forward anxiously to the arrival at
the objective point so that our suspicions could be either verified or
abandoned. Leith was more affable than usual on that afternoon, and he
held forth in such a gloomy fashion upon the wonders that were within
reach that the Professor almost forgot his injuries and his animus
against Holman as he listened to the description.
"It is my opinion that the island was the burial ground of the chiefs of
the nearby groups," remarked Leith. "There is every indication that the
people who were buried here were not ordinary people, as you will see
when you view the wonders that will meet your eyes to-morrow."
The Professor beamed through his thick glasses, and, forgetting his
injuries, gave a little jump in negotiating an obstruction, but the look
of agony which passed across his face proved that his injured limb
objected to useless gambols.
"We may be wrong after all," muttered Holman, after he had listened to
Leith's description of the wonders of the tombs of the long-dead members
of Polynesian royal families. "I hate to be suspicious of a fellow, and
I'll be glad if he proves genuine in the end."
"So will I," I remarked. "If he measures up all right I'll be half
inclined to apologize before I go back to take a gruelling from Captain
Newmarch."
It was Kaipi who stampeded the small ray of charity that had pierced the
cluster of suspicions we had collected. The little Fijian performed the
trick about seven o'clock in the evening, and it was done in a most
effective manner. When we had made camp, Leith had sent Soma on ahead
with the ostensible purpose of locating the easiest route to the base of
the cliffs, and an hour afterward Kaipi managed to attract my attention,
and he indicated by signs that he had information to impart. I seized a
chance to help him with the small tent which sheltered the two sisters,
and as we tugged at the knots he slipped a small piece of paper into my
hand.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Soma drop it," he explained nervously. "I follow him just little way
think get good chance kill him, but no chance come. He drop little piece
of paper from his belt; me pick 'em up. I no know what it say; you
read."
I crammed the note into my pocket as Leith approached, but at the first
opportunity I dived into a thicket of leaves and opened it with nervous
fingers. It was brief, exceedingly brief, but no number of words could
have produced the same cold chill of dread which took possession of me
as I glanced over the scrawl upon the paper. The note read:
"Five babies for kindergarten. Arrange everything. Meet at the Long
Gallery."
I stumbled out on the clearing in a half stupor. The arrival of the
long-expected confirmation of our suspicions had the same effect upon me
as a blow from a sandbag. Leith was apparently everything that Holman
and the girls had suspected him of being, and as I looked around at the
nearly impenetrable jungle growth upon which the night had come down
with that appalling swiftness of the tropics, I understood the helpless
condition in which we were placed. Soma and the other five carriers were
evidently tools of the big bully; the person or persons to whom the note
was addressed would also stand behind him in a fray, and against this
little army there was Holman, Kaipi, the two sisters, and myself. The
Professor's insane craving for a sight of the antiquities would probably
make him a partisan of the big brute till his devilish tricks were laid
sufficiently bare to allow the childish mind of the scientist to see
through them. The situation was pitiful to contemplate, and sick with
terror at thoughts of the fate of the two girls, I found Holman and
pulled him out of the circle of light thrown by the fire which Kaipi was
tending.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I've got proof!" I cried. "Soma dropped a note that Leith sent him off
with when we halted. Kaipi found it and brought it to me."
I recited the few words that were now pounding madly through my brain,
but the mere recitation would not satisfy Holman. He wanted to see the
words--to stare at them, so that his eyes might confirm the information
which his ears had gathered, and together we dived deeper into the
creepers till it was safe for him to light a match by which he could
view the scrawl.
"My God!" he cried hoarsely. "He's a devil, Verslun! We're fools!
Infernal fools! Do you hear me? I'll shoot the brute now!"
He flung aside my hands and made a dash toward the fire, plunging
through the creepers with a strength born of the sudden flame of temper
which had come with the confirmation of Leith's duplicity. The boy's
love for Barbara Herndon made him a madman as he raced madly to obtain
vengeance from the brute who had led us into the trap.
Like two maniacs we rushed into the light of the fire, but only the two
girls and the Professor were seated round it. Leith was not in sight.
"Where is he?" gasped Holman.
The Professor looked up in mild astonishment. "Who?" he asked.
"Leith!" cried the boy. "Where has he gone?"
"Mr. Leith has gone forward to help Soma," squeaked the Professor. "It
will be moonlight, so he took the opportunity of making certain about
the direction we were to go in the morning. He said he would not be back
before daylight."
Holman mastered his anger, and I beckoned the Professor to one side. It
was necessary to make an attempt to convince the foolish old scientist
that we were in the hands of a scoundrel, and I determined to place the
note and our suspicions before him.
I told hurriedly of the appearance of the figure upon the stone table on
the previous evening, but before I had time to tell of the note, the
doddering old imbecile interrupted.
"What's that?" he cried. "Some one else upon the island? Well, they
can't steal the honour of the discoveries. I have first claim upon
everything we find upon the place. Mr. Leith and I made that arrangement
before we left Sydney. Besides, it is Mr. Leith's island, and if other
scientists are here--
"Oh, confound it! Who said they were scientists?" roared Holman. "It's
bad luck for us that they are not. Scientists are harmless, but these
are natives or something worse."
"Leith will fix 'em!" cried the Professor, ignoring the youngster's
comment on the inoffensive nature of men of his type. "Leith will put
them off the place--"
"Stop chattering and read that!" I interrupted. "Your precious friend
sent this ahead by Soma. He dropped it and we got hold of it."
Holman struck a match and held it over the scrap of paper while the
scientist stared at it through his thick glasses.
"Well?" he queried. "What has this nonsense to do with me?"
"The five babies," snapped Holman.
"Five babies?" repeated the Professor. "I know nothing about babies!"
His small head wagged backward and forward as he made the statement, and
his evident inability to see that the reference concerned us irritated
the youngster beyond measure.
"You're the biggest baby of the five!" he roared. "You're a madman! Come
away, Verslun; it's no use arguing with him!"
The Professor gave an indignant snort, straightened his small body, as
if he contemplated an attack upon the youngster, then dashed madly back
to the fire, where we watched him bobbing his head up and down as he
spoke to the two girls. His confidence in the rascal who was possibly
luring him to his death was pitiful to see, and we recognized at that
moment that it would be useless to waste any further arguments with him.
"We've got to get out of this scrape by our own efforts," muttered
Holman. "The girls won't leave him, worse luck. If they would I'd turn
tail this minute and make an attempt to fight our way back to the
yacht."
"And I doubt if you will find a haven there," I remarked. "That bilious
captain was in a great hurry to send word to Leith that I had got safely
by his farewell bombardment. We're in for it, old man, and we might as
well realize the fact right now."
"You're not sorry I found you on that pile of pearl shell?"
"Sorry?" I cried. "I'm glad, man--I'm infernally glad."
Holman gripped my hand, and then we crawled through the bushes toward
the spot where Soma and Leith had started off on their supposed work of
exploration.
"What can we do?" I asked.
"Wait round here and pot him when he is coming back," said the youngster
cheerfully. "But we should let the girls know something, shouldn't we?
That old fool will tell them a garbled account that will frighten them
out of their wits. One of us had better go and try to quiet their
fears."
"You go then," I remarked. "I'll wait here till you come back."
Holman crept quietly toward the campfire, and I waited in the
undergrowth. The moon was rising in the east and a soft gray light wiped
out the intense blackness that had come upon the place after the short
twilight. The tops of the cliffs toward which we were journeying were
tipped by a brilliant thread of silver as the moon peeped above their
ramparts, and I crept deeper into the shadows as the full glory of the
glowing orb turned the night into day.
I had waited some thirty minutes for Holman when I noticed a movement
beneath a small bush some fifteen paces to my right. I watched the spot
without moving, and presently a dark figure crept out of the shelter and
moved cautiously toward the camp. Convinced that the visitor was Soma, I
pulled out my revolver and waited, wondering as I watched what he
intended to do.
The black figure came closer. He paused to listen to the sounds that
came from the fire, and as he lifted his head the moonlight fell across
his face, and I put the revolver back in my pocket.
"Kaipi," I murmured.
The Fijian crept quietly to the spot where I was hiding.
"I come for you," he muttered.
"Why?"
"Funny things much," he gurgled. "Light on mountain, no see from here.
Me watch it, think it something bad. Come, I'll show you."
Holman returned at that moment and I explained what Kaipi had just told
me.
"The devil!" muttered the youngster. "The note said that he would meet
them at the Long Gallery. See, the light is not visible from our camp,
and the brute never thought that one of us would be far enough from the
camp to notice it. If it's a signal we might be able to reach the spot
and see what is actually going on. If we leave things till to-morrow I'm
afraid we'll be too late."
"But the girls?" I cried.
"We'll get back," he replied. "I told them how everything is, Verslun,
and they're not afraid. Edith has an automatic pistol that she brought
from the yacht, and she'll use it if she is forced to. Come on!"
We followed Kaipi into the shadows, the Fijian picking his way with
wonderful instinct through the clumps. At about half a mile from the
camp he stopped and pointed to the cliffs.
"Me see light flash way over there," he whispered. "You wait and see."
We crouched down and waited. The minutes passed slowly, but the black
barrier away to the east gave no sign of life.
"I think Kaipi must have sighted a star," muttered Holman. "There is
nothing--"
He broke off abruptly and gripped my arm. High up in the basalt barrier,
at a spot about three quarters of a mile from where we were crouched, a
tiny flame suddenly appeared, blazed for an instant, then died away
again. Three times it flared up and as quickly died away, but at the
third disappearance Holman and I, with the vengeance-seeking Kaipi, were
struggling through the network of damp vegetation toward the spot from
which the signal had come.
[Illustration]