ndred of them up to Vavau for a German scientist
last year. He was taking them home to European museums to prove that the
Polynesians of ten centuries back had bigger brains than the niggers of
to-day."

"Yes, I know that," gurgled Holman; "but Leith--oh, damn it! I can't get
you to understand! He pulled the Professor into this deal, and the old
man is as green as grass. Herndon supplied the money and all that, and
he's that much of a silly old doodlebug that this fellow is buncoing him
out of his good gold."

"Yes," I muttered; "and what do his daughters say?"

"Say?" cried the youngster. "They can say nothing that will do any good
when they are talking to a madman. He sees Fame coming down the pike,
and he's blind to all the tricks of that devil. It's a fact, Verslun!
Leith is after the old man's cash--and after Edith Herndon as well."

I stood and looked at the youngster. His boyish face was aflame with
indignation, and any suspicions I had regarding his good intentions were
swept away immediately.

"After Edith Herndon?" I repeated slowly.

"Yes!" he gasped. "Oh, I knew you didn't like the big, sallow brute.
Miss Barbara told me how you turned him down cold when he wanted you to
repeat that yarn to satisfy his curiosity. He's a bad egg, do you hear?
He's out for trouble, and we're going to run into it head on before we
finish the trip. Only for the girls I would have stayed ashore at
Levuka."

"And the captain?" I questioned.

"We don't know about him," he snapped. "He's Leith's captain. I mean
Leith put him in his job when the Professor chartered the yacht. Anyhow,
he doesn't say enough to let any one know which side of the fence he is
on. He has only learned to say yes and no, and he is mighty particular
about the number of times he will use those words."

I laughed at the bitterness the youngster threw into his speech. It is
good to be young. One can love and hate with some intensity, and it
appeared to me that Holman had found marks for both adoration and hatred
on the yacht that was slipping into the mysterious islands of the South
Sea.

"You mustn't look at the black side of things," I said. "Leith's face is
not a likable one, I will admit, but a lot of good fellows have ugly
dials. It seems that the Professor wants skulls, and it appears that
Leith knows of a spot where he can gather up the oldest specimens in
Polynesia. There's nothing wrong about that. As to Miss Herndon, she
struck me as being