wled Leith, as if attempting
to 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 be
diplomatic to go against the wishes of all, and he knew it. With a wave
of his hand he ordered Kaipi to the fire where Soma and the other five
islanders were sitting, and nodded his head as an intimation that I
could stay.

"By the way," he growled, as I fell upon the plate of tinned salmon
which Edith Herndon handed to me, "who was doing the shooting this
afternoon?"

"I was," I replied. "I fired my revolver half a dozen times when we got
off the trail and couldn't find our way back to it. I thought on account
of the way that the path wound in and out that your party might be near
the spot where we were bushed."

He made no further comment and I breathed a sigh of relief. Unless
Newmarch sent a second messenger to make sure that the news of my
desertion would reach Leith, I felt that I was safe.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII

THE PIT

We were under way early on the morning after I joined the party. Leith
had the camp astir by daybreak, and after a hasty breakfast we trailed
off behind Soma and the carriers, heading directly toward the basalt
towers that rose up in the middle of the island.

I for one was not sorry that we were making an early start. All through
the night I lay awake expecting another member of the crew to rush into
camp with a message from Newmarch to Leith, and when we started on the
trail, I took particular care to lag behind the procession for the first
few hours so that I would be in a position to intercept any diligent
runner from _The Waif_. I took the first opportunity of telling Holman
of the manner in which the bilious Englishman had hastened my departure
with the Winchester, and the youngster's face wore a perplexed
expression.

"That precious captain is Leith's partner in villainy," he cried, "but
our hands are tied. The Professor is simply crazy with delight over the
things that the brute is going to guide him to, and all our suspicions
don't amount to much when you put them together. You see we've got
nothing definite to go on at present. All we can do is to watch and
wait, and be ready to act when the moment comes. Soma and his five mates
are Leith's pets, you can bet your