hispered Holman. "This delay will give
Leith a chance to get to the hills."

But the finding of the path was no easy matter. So that we would be well
out of the sphere of the companions of the man who carried the
greenstone blade, we worked our way for about one hundred yards through
the leafy maze before attempting to search for it, and that search
proved a long and tiresome one. It is impossible to describe the network
of wanton vegetation through which we struggled during the hot
afternoon. Every kind of shrub and tree was woven into an ungodly tangle
by the crawling, leaping vines that shut out the sky and made it
impossible to see a person standing only a few feet away.

We stayed our appetites with wild guavas and yams, and moved slowly
forward in the direction that we surmised that Leith was moving in. Our
inability to find the path left us the only alternative of pushing on
toward the hills in the hope that we would intercept the party before it
reached the caverns which made the basalt cliffs a secure hiding place.
Once the arch villain reached the caves it would be a difficult matter
to locate him, and we damned the crazy brain of the Professor as we
thought of the lonely position of the Isle of Tears. If the captain of
_The Waif_ was in league with Leith it would be absolutely impossible to
obtain help to rescue the girls and their father, and we would be
marooned upon the island for an indefinite period.

It was within a few minutes of sunset when our despondency was suddenly
swept away. The silence of the jungle was disturbed by a shrill voice
that protested loudly against something which the owner was called upon
to do, and our hearts punched our ribs with mighty blows as we crawled
forward. The voice belonged to Professor Clinton Herndon of California.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI

THE STONE TABLE

Our feelings can hardly be described as we crept closer to the spot from
which the scientist's angry protest had gone up through the silence like
a thin wire. The loneliness of that day had been appalling. I know that
Edith Herndon's quiet face was continually before my mental vision,
while Holman's actions convinced me that he was suffering acutely. If we
were certain that Leith intended to do no wrong to the party, the fact
that he was within speaking distance of the two girls was particularly
distressing after the knowledge we had gained in the night. With extreme
caution we wormed our way forwar