The White Waterfall

by James Francis Dwyer

watch, and Holman and I flung ourselves down upon thegrass. We had had no slumber on the previous night, and the incidents inwhich we had taken part had left us exhausted.

  It was daybreak before Kaipi awakened us, and the face of the Fijianinformed us that something had alarmed him. He was stretched full lengthon the ground, listening as only a native can listen, and we waited forhis report. We had much respect for Kaipi's hearing after checking thesignals he made concerning the approaching "tivo" dancer on the previousafternoon.

  "What is it?" asked Holman.

  "Some one go by, much hurry," murmured the Fijian.

  We crouched in the bushes and listened. It was hardly likely that Leithhad changed his route, and the only person that we knew to be in ourneighbourhood was the dancer.

  "If we could get hold of him we might use the third degree on him toguide us to the spot that Leith is making for," said Holman. "We'll beoutgeneralled completely if he gets into those caverns on the hills. Ifhe has provisions he can snap his fingers at a regiment."

  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 theslippery pathway in the Vermilion Pit, was about the finest naturalhiding place in the world. Without taking the caves into consideration,the luxurious vegetation in the cup between the hills made the findingof a person a matter of extreme luck. It was a marvellous maze thatNature seemed to have constructed especially for the diabolical work inwhich Leith was engaged.

  Kaipi's ear was still to the ground, and the anxious look upon his faceconvinced us that some one was close.

  "Coming back again," breathed the Islander. "One man, walk slow."

  Our own ears acquainted us of the approach at that moment. The sound ofcrackling twigs was quite close, and we waited breathlessly, eying thegreen curtain through which we expected the unknown to thrust himself.

  A black head bobbed through the leaves, and Holman planted a fistbetween the newcomer's eyes before the head could be withdrawn. Themorning visitor dropped to the ground, and the three of us promptly fellupon him, the bloodthirsty Kaipi having to be restrained by main forcefrom giving another exhibition of neat knifework.

  "Who is it?" asked Holman. "Get back, Kaipi, and let me see."

  We dragged the panting prisoner into the light, but instead of theescaped dancer, we found that we had trapped one of the five carriers, abig Raretongan named Maru, who was possessed of enormous strength.

  Holman's punch had been no light one, and it was a few seconds beforethe mists had cleared from the Raretongan's brain; then his big browneyes lit up with a smile of gladness, and he nodded to Holman.

  "Me want you," he said.

  "Quite so," muttered Holman, "but I got you first."

  Maru smiled the smile of the man who has a card up his sleeve, and hefumbled in the folds of his sulu till he found what he wanted. With adramatic flourish he drew from the cloth a small emerald ring thatbelonged to Barbara Herndon, and he smiled childishly as he saw the lookof astonishment upon Holman's face as he snatched the trinket.

  "Why--who--how the devil did you get this?" he asked.

  "Little missee give me," replied Maru, still convulsed with the humourwhich his childish mind found in the situation. "She tell me come alongayou."

  Holman poured out a torrent of questions which the smiling messengerendeavoured to answer to the best of his ability. In pigeon English heinformed us that he had deserted Leith's camp about midnight; that thebig ruffian had turned abruptly from the direction he was moving in atthe time we caught up with him, and that Holman's bullet had caused himserious inconvenience. The two girls and the Professor were in charge ofSoma and the one-eyed white man, who, we now learned, was deaf anddumb. It was while One Eye was on guard that Barbara Herndon had beenable to bribe the Raretongan to throw the strength of his muscles uponour side of the argument.

  Holman, with lover-like longing for anything owned by the lady of hischoice, attempted to put the emerald ring in his pocket, but Maruobjected strongly. The smile fled from his face, and his broken Englishnearly strangled him in his efforts to pour out enough of it to acquaintHolman of the nature of the agreement which he had entered into withBarbara Herndon.

  "Me only show you ring, that's all!" he cried. "You look, know littlemissee send me, ring mine all time. You give back."

  "You had better give it back to him," I cautioned. "He has got the ideainto his head, and it will take a lot of arguing to convince him thatMiss Barbara didn't give it to him to keep."

  "But she didn't!" cried Holman. "Why would she give him a ring? She justgave him a loan of it to let him see that she had sent him to us."

  "My ring all time," protested Maru. "That my pay fight mighty good foryou."

  "Give it up to him," I advised. "He's only an overgrown child, and hehas set his mind on it."

  "But, Verslun, I know she wouldn't do that!" protested the lover."Barbara sent me this as----"

  "Oh, I know," I cried, "but we want fighters now, and Maru is a prettyathletic person."

  "Me damn good fighter!" cried the Raretongan. "Me plentee good fighterif me get ring."

  Holman gave up the trinket with a snort of disgust, and a few minutesafterward, when we were tramping along, I made it my business to dropback beside Maru and advise him to keep the ring out of the youngster'ssight till we had rescued Miss Barbara. If the native had displayed hisreward it was highly probable that the lovesick Holman, with nerves onthe raw edge from want of sleep and worry, would have pounced upon themighty Maru and endeavoured to obtain possession of what he fondlythought was a token of affection from his beloved.

  But the arrival of the messenger was worth more than the emerald ring tous at that moment. He had more woodcraft than Kaipi, who had spent mostof his time upon the ocean, and his information regarding the directionin which Leith was now heading saved us many weary hours of marching.

  Yams and guavas, with wild passion fruit, made a breakfast and dinner aswe clawed our way in pursuit. At midday we judged that we were hot uponthe trail, unless Leith had changed his course, but the black cliffswere close to us at that moment, and the recollections of the gloomycaverns made us silent as we pushed through the matted jungle. We couldsee no trace of the path which Leith would be compelled to cut to enablethe two girls to get through, and we heard no sounds. A lone parrakeetstartled us with its harsh cry as it rose from a maupei tree, and thebird even seemed to recognize that it had committed a breach in sendingits unmusical cry out upon the awful quiet of the place.

  Kaipi climbed a tall tree in the vain hope of catching sight of Leith'sparty as it crossed the small cleared spaces in the middle of theimpenetrable growth, but nothing except the green plain of bushy topsand parasitical creepers was visible. As we waited beneath the tree the"ticking" of a wood bug sounded like hammer blows in the tremendousquietude, while the bursting of a pod reminded one of the beginning of aFourth of July celebration. We had lost all trace of Leith, and now,immediately in front, rose the cliffs, and we saw a menace on theirdark, forbidding front.

  The base of the hills presented the same nearly perpendicular formationthat we had met when endeavouring to reach the long gallery, and we helda council to decide on what would be the best course to pursue. Maru wasconfident that Leith was heading for this particular point at the momentthat Barbara's bribe caused the Raretongan to desert, and it wasreasonable to think that the ruffian had retired to some hiding place tonurse his wound and decide upon the fate of the Professor and his twodaughters. From the scraps of conversation which we had overheard beforeHolman interrupted the argument between Leith and the scientist, wethought it probable that the old man would visit the centipede upon thebig table if he did not sign the papers that Leith required, while weshuddered at the probable fate of the two girls unless Providencedirected us as to the manner in which we could effect a rescue.

  "We must divide," said Holman. "I'll take Kaipi and go north, you takeMaru and go in the opposite direction. If you fin
d the trail, camp nearit and send Maru on the run back to us. I'll do the same if I strike thespoor of the big devil."

  It was about two o'clock, as nearly as we could judge, when weseparated. We agreed to keep as close as possible to the rocky wall sothat a messenger from one would have less difficulty in locating theother, and Maru and I found, before we had gone a hundred yards, thatthe nearer we could get to the cliff the quicker we could get along. Thelianas found it difficult to get a grip upon the rocks, and we couldworm our way without much trouble.

  We had travelled about three quarters of a mile when the native droppedupon his knees and I immediately followed his example. The ordinaryPolynesian is not to be compared with