The White Waterfall Read online

theFate-appointed destroyer of Leith came to me as I raced beside him, andI put aside the fears for Edith Herndon's safety that besieged me as Iran. The last doubt about Leith's treachery had been chased away by thedance we had witnessed, and I felt assured that the man was a monster, avile thing, who, for some purpose that I could not allow myself toponder over, had brought the foolish old scientist and his daughtersinto a place of terrors. Treachery had been apparent from the start. Itwas only the confidence of the old antiquarian that had blinded our eyesto a score of incidents that should have convinced us that the brute hadsome ulterior motive in view. During that mad race through the night thebig sallow-faced giant appeared to us as a devil, a fiend that wasconnected with some sort of horrible practices that had continued toexist in this remote islet long after all trace of such things had beenlost in those islands that were visited by traders and missionaries.Kaipi connected the dance with death, and the same conclusion had cometo us before we had heard the words of the frightened Fijian.

  Holman slackened speed, and we dodged through a mass of boulders that wejudged were in a direct line with the crevice through which we hadwitnessed the happenings in the cave.

  "We should be near the place if there is an entrance to it on thisside," he muttered. "This pile of rocks looks from--oh, Gee! here's apath!"

  It was a path, sure enough. It wound in and out among the rocks, anarrow beaten trail, singularly white against the black surroundings.

  Holman stopped and took up a handful of the dust. "They coat it withcoral lime to make it plain in the darkness," he growled. "Come on,Verslun, the wriggly batch must be straight ahead."

  I pulled the army Colt from my pocket and ran softly abreast of theyoungster. The corrosive terror of the earlier part of the evening hadfled then, and my nerves had taken up a sort of dare-devil attitudetoward all happenings that the future might hold in store. Besides, themore I thought of Leith, the greater his villainy appeared to be, and tosave Edith Herndon from the slightest contact with the ugly ruffian wasa task that would give the greatest coward in the world the courage of awarrior.

  The white path wound in and out of the boulders, which became thickeras we advanced, and suddenly it dived through a dark passage into theside of the hill. We felt that we were at the mouth of the burrow bywhich Leith and his dancers had entered, and we moved into the shadow toreconnoitre. Leith had informed the Professor that he would not returnto the camp till the following morning, so the chances were that thetreacherous scoundrel was still assisting at the ceremonies that we hadwitnessed.

  "Shall we go in?" whispered Holman.

  "As you like," I answered.

  He moved toward the mouth of the burrow, then stopped and turned towardme. "What time is it?"

  "It's ten minutes of midnight," I replied.

  "We've got six hours," he whispered. "Come along, we'll chance it."

  Very cautiously we moved into the darkness of the passageway, feelingour way along the walls that were cold and damp from the moisture whichhad soaked through from the crown of the cliff. The place was not morethan 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 hewished to ascertain my position. Our shoes made no sound upon the floorof the corridor. It was covered deep with fine dust, upon which wewalked noiselessly.

  An occasional bat fluttered past us, but outside the flapping of thewings not a sound disturbed the stillness of the place. The silence ofthe outside was intensified a hundredfold. In the open, one heard thecrooning of the trees as the soft winds from the Pacific played withtheir heavy foliage, but in the natural passage through which we crawledin search of Leith the air felt as if it had not been disturbed forcenturies. It was heavy and thick, possessing a faint odour that seemedto rise from the dust beneath our feet.

  We had walked about one hundred yards along the corridor when it widenedsuddenly. The walls that we were following turned off at right angles,and from the moonlight which filtered through a dozen small fissureshigh up above our heads we saw that we had entered a cavern of vastproportions. We sensed its vastness. The few streaks of moonlight thatstabbed the darkness were like so many guide-posts that enabled us tomake a mental calculation of the height and extent of the place.

  We stopped and moved together instinctively. Holman put his mouth closeto my ear.

  "What do you make of it?" he asked.

  "It might be a cavern leading into the one that runs out to the face ofthe cliff," I replied.

  "But how are we to cross it?"

  "I can't tell you. I'm afraid if we leave this opening that we'll getlost."

  It was rather plain that we would. The surrounding walls were as blackas the opening by which we had entered the place, and we stood withquick-beating hearts staring out across the place through which the barsof moonlight appeared like silver skewers.

  One of these skewers fell upon a ledge of stone some few yards in frontof the spot where we were standing, and Holman stepped toward it.

  "Stay where you are," he said. "If I get lost I'll whistle softly andyou can signal back to me."

  He moved away and I was left standing in the opening. A bat bangedheavily against my face, and the odour from the dusty floor irritated mynostrils so that I had difficulty in restraining myself from sneezing.

  It was about twenty minutes before Holman returned. He whistled ever sosoftly, and when I replied he came toward me hurriedly.

  "Just walk out to that spot of moonlight," he whispered. "I'll keepguard on the door. Feel around there and tell me what you think of it."

  I did as he directed. I walked forward to the spot and felt around withmy hands. My fingers came in contact with round, smooth objects thatfilled every available inch of a stone table in front of me, and with afeeling of revulsion I hurried back to the mouth of the corridor. Holmangripped my arm and put a question.

  "Gave you a shock, eh?"

  "Why, they're skulls!" I breathed hoarsely.

  "Yes, hundreds of 'em," he said. "The place is chock full of them. Thisisland must have been the burying ground of all the adjoining groups,and it's the atmosphere of the place that keeps the niggers away fromit. Leith has been wise to that. The present generation of islandersknow nothing of the things that happened here hundreds of years back,but they've got an inborn horror of the place, and they keep away."

  "Well, what are we to do?"

  "Wait here."

  "But if he doesn't come this way?"

  "He must," he answered. "It's the only way out, I think. We can't goacross this wilderness, so it's safer to await developments here."

  We hadn't long to wait. From a point directly opposite our position, andat a distance that we judged to be two hundred yards away, a bobbinglight broke into the wall of darkness and moved directly toward us.Holman gripped my arm and pulled me forward to the stone tables uponwhich the skulls were laid, and side by side we crouched and waited.

  It was the ship's lantern that Soma had carried in front of Leith thatwas now moving upon us. Its yellow light showed the parrot-feather matand headdress of the big Kanaka, while the hum of voices, which driftedacross the vast space of the cavern, informed us that the dancers whohad assisted at the ceremony were returning with Leith and the one-eyedwhite man.

  Holman's breath came hot upon my cheek. There was no necessity forspeech. I knew that he intended to seize the first opportunity toattack, and that opportunity was at hand. Behind the bobbing lamp thatwas approaching us by an irregular trail, as if Soma was winding in andout amidst stone supports similar to the one that sheltered us, was thebrute who held us in his grip, and after the events we had witnessed itseemed impossible to reconcile his actions with anything that smacked ofdecency or honesty.

  "Behind the bobbing lamp was the brute who held us inhis grip."]

  I attempted to drop on my knees at that minute, but the moment wasdisastrous to the ambush which we had planned. As I moved my handforward I dislodged a skull that was evidently resting
upon a shelfsomewhat higher than the one before us. With a noise that appearedterrific in that place, the object crashed down upon the stone, and thebobbing lantern halted about fifteen paces in front of us.

  Leith broke the silence that followed. "What was that?" he asked.

  "A bat," answered Soma.

  "I don't think so," droned Leith. "Lift up the light."

  Soma raised the lantern high above his head, and as he did so Holmanfired.

  The echoes were terrific. High in the vaulted roof of the place echoesanswered each other with the sharp reports of Maxims, and the thick airshivered.

  Leith's voice roared an order. "Put out the light!"

  Soma immediately crashed the lantern upon the ground,