t. They come out speakee him, he
slap big missee in face, drive 'em off."

Holman was crashing through the bushes before Kaipi had finished his
recital, and I followed him, with the excited Fijian bringing up the
rear. Leith was rushing the Professor and his daughters toward the black
hills and we had to do something immediately.

For over an hour we stumbled along the track, making no effort to keep
under cover in case Leith should have prepared an ambush. It was useless
to argue with Holman, and my own feelings were such that I preferred to
take the risks of the route which Soma's axe had cut, to the delays
which the task of forcing our own passage through the labyrinth would
bring upon us. Prudence was thrust into the background by the intense
hate we entertained for the devil who had entrapped us.

It was near midday when our pursuit met with an interruption. A revolver
cracked in a clump of wild ginger directly in front, and we took cover
immediately. The bullet had whizzed close to Holman's head, and as we
lay panting in the ribbon-grass we congratulated ourselves on the fact
that we had been met with a single shot instead of a volley. We had
taken a big chance and had come off lucky. It was impossible for Leith's
party to be very far ahead, and as we watched the ginger clump we
wondered how we could circumvent the sharpshooter.

After about five minutes of absolute quiet Kaipi turned his head and
pointed to the rear, and Holman and I listened intently. The Fijian's
sharper ears had detected slight sounds behind us, and as we strained
the silence we came to the conclusion that the enemy had stealthily
worked their way around us, and were now creeping like snakes through
the maze with the hope that they would take us unawares.

We started to worm our way to the right, and our hatred of the infernal
island, where we were reduced to the condition of burrowing moles,
increased. Our eyes were practically useless. We had to depend upon
hearing alone, and when a white man pits his ears against those of a
native he finds that he has been suffering from partial deafness without
being aware of the fact. A dozen times we shifted ground on a signal
from Kaipi, whose head was continually to the earth, and that game of
hide and seek drove us frantic. Leith was hurrying toward the hills
while we were crawling backward and forward through the undergrowth to
escape a few natives who pursued their tactics with a persistency tha