o 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