came down, while hunger andrevenge made Kaipi move at a speed that was most unusual.
Darkness came down like a suffocating blanket, and we halted.
"No go farther," muttered Kaipi. "Better make fire and sleep. Catch umto-morrow."
I sat down while the Fijian gathered a pile of rotten wood, but beforehe could set fire to the heap I was on my feet clawing my way into thedarkness in front. From somewhere out of the inky night came the voiceof Edith Herndon lifted up in a little Italian melody that I had heardher singing the night we left Levuka. It seemed to me that she suspectedmy near presence, and that she was singing to guide me to the spot wherethe party had camped.
Five minutes afterward Kaipi and I stumbled into the circle of lightround the fire, and Leith sprang to his feet with a growl of rage.
"What's this?" he cried. "Who the devil gave you permission to comehere?"
"The captain sent me," I replied, looking straight at the giant as Ifired the lie at him. "The carriers forgot Professor Herndon's camera,and Captain Newmarch sent Kaipi and me after you."
Leith's mutterings were drowned by the scientist's cries of joy as hetook the camera from my hand, and the big brute had time to recoverhimself before the Professor had stopped chattering. I guessed that hereasoned that it would be bad policy to show that he was angry at myarrival, while the camera partly convinced him that I had told thetruth. His surprise and the Professor's evident pleasure made me thinkit an opportune moment to put forward a request to stay with the party,and I put my wish into words.
"Captain Newmarch said that Kaipi and I might go along if you andProfessor Herndon had no objections," I lied. "He thought we would proveuseful."
Leith scowled angrily, but the Professor gave an immediate assent to therequest. His short-sightedness prevented him from noticing the frownwhich passed over the face of his partner, but the sour look fledimmediately the two girls expressed a desire to keep me in the party.
"Oh, please let Mr. Verslun come," cried Miss Barbara. "It will make itever so much more pleasant."
"I was thinking of the stock of food," growled Leith, as if attemptingto explain his evident displeasure.
"I'll go on half measure and let Mr. Verslun have the other half,"laughed Holman.
"And he can have some of mine," cried Miss Barbara.
"And mine," murmured Edith.
Leith grinned as he noted the feeling of the party. It would not bediplomatic to go against the wishes of all, and he knew it. With a waveof his hand he ordered Kaipi to the fire where Soma and the other fiveislanders were sitting, and nodded his head as an intimation that Icould stay.
"By the way," he growled, as I fell upon the plate of tinned salmonwhich Edith Herndon handed to me, "who was doing the shooting thisafternoon?"
"I was," I replied. "I fired my revolver half a dozen times when we gotoff the trail and couldn't find our way back to it. I thought on accountof the way that the path wound in and out that your party might be nearthe spot where we were bushed."
He made no further comment and I breathed a sigh of relief. UnlessNewmarch sent a second messenger to make sure that the news of mydesertion would reach Leith, I felt that I was safe.
CHAPTER VII
THE PIT
We were under way early on the morning after I joined the party. Leithhad the camp astir by daybreak, and after a hasty breakfast we trailedoff behind Soma and the carriers, heading directly toward the basalttowers that rose up in the middle of the island.
I for one was not sorry that we were making an early start. All throughthe night I lay awake expecting another member of the crew to rush intocamp with a message from Newmarch to Leith, and when we started on thetrail, I took particular care to lag behind the procession for the firstfew hours so that I would be in a position to intercept any diligentrunner from _The Waif_. I took the first opportunity of telling Holmanof the manner in which the bilious Englishman had hastened my departurewith the Winchester, and the youngster's face wore a perplexedexpression.
"That precious captain is Leith's partner in villainy," he cried, "butour hands are tied. The Professor is simply crazy with delight over thethings that the brute is going to guide him to, and all our suspicionsdon't amount to much when you put them together. You see we've gotnothing definite to go on at present. All we can do is to watch andwait, and be ready to act when the moment comes. Soma and his five matesare Leith's pets, you can bet your life on that, but we have one ally inyour friend Kaipi."
The path of the preceding day was smooth compared to the ground weclimbed 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 couldonly be visible to the eye of a native. Barbara Herndon remarked on oneoccasion that there was danger of our getting lost, but Leith grinned atthe remark.
"Soma has been here more than once," he replied. "What he doesn't knowabout this place isn't worth knowing."
The path continued to ascend, but the thick tropical growth did notlessen during the tramp of the morning. Leith walked with theProfessor, 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 theroughest sections of the road. I thought as we scrambled throughimpenetrable scrub and crawled over rocky piles that it was thestrangest expedition that had ever set forth. If Leith was the wickeddevil that we suspected him to be, four persons were risking their livesto gratify the whim of a half-crazy scientist who was dying fornotoriety. He would not be turned aside from his pursuit of thespecimens which Leith had told him of; his daughters would not deserthim, and their resolve had brought Holman and myself. We were blindautomatons that the fame-seeking archaeologist was dragging at his heels.He did not consider the sufferings of the two girls; least of all did hethink that Holman or myself was doing anything to safeguard his life orproperty. He was blind to everything but the natural curiosities aroundhim, and he made frequent entries in the notebook that was to be hiscrutch to Olympus.
Leith did not allow me to remain long in the rear. He called me up tothe front, and very politely asked me to help in hustling along thecarriers who were inclined to dawdle as the way grew rougher, and,although I would much rather have had the task of helping the twogirls, 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 foodwas paid for by the Professor.
We halted at midday in an ugly-looking spot far up the shoulder of themountain that we were climbing, and through a break in the trees wecaught a glimpse of the Pacific. The ocean seemed directly beneath us,and yet, as Edith Herndon expressed it, we seemed to be a thousandleagues away from it.
"We halted at midday in an ugly-looking spot far upthe shoulder of the mountain."]
"This horrible silence makes me long for the clean sound of the waves,"she whispered, as I rolled a stone over to make her a seat. "Thisstillness stops one from speaking. Do you know that Barbara and Ihaven't spoken a word during the last hour? We simply hadn't the courageto make the effort."
Under the watchful eye of Leith I endeavoured to cheer her up, whileinwardly I cursed the prattling old Professor who chattered of thehonours he expected as the rewards of his discoveries. The affair wasenough to bring tears to the eyes of a man with a heart of stone.
"I'm just thinking we should have stopped this business before it gotthis far," muttered Holman, as he reached closer to get a light for hiscigarette.
"What should we have done?" I asked.
"I don't know," he growled. "We should have done something though. Pitywe didn't lose Leith overboard with your friend Toni."
"What's wrong now? Has anything happened?"
"No, nothing has happened," he replied. "I wish something would. Thissilence is beginning to put my nerves on edge, but I'm afraid to yellout for fear that I might wake something that has been dead forcenturies. Does it strike you that way?"
"Very much."
"Well, it's the same with the girls," muttered Holman
. "The stillness ofthe place has brought their ordinary conversational tone down to awhisper."
Leith lurched across and interrupted our conversation. "Get the boysgoing, Mr. Verslun," he said. "We want to cross the Vermilion Pit whilethe light is good, and it is hard going from here on."
We started forward up the boulder-strewn slope, and with each step thedifficulties of the ascent became greater. I took an axe and helped Somachop a path which would make it easier for the two sisters, but nomatter what amount of trouble we took, they found it a difficult matterto follow. Once, goaded into fury by Leith's attempts to hurry the girlswhen Holman was assisting them over a particularly rough