Paumotus."
CHAPTER VIII
THE LEDGE OF DEATH
I suppose that Leith was not far wrong when he gave that place thecredit of being the most wonderful spot in Polynesia. None of us feltinclined to contradict him as we stood near the lip of the crater andgazed into it. The thing appalled us. It looked as if some fiend hadbored it between those barriers of black rock as a trap for man andbeast. The entire inner walls, probably from the action of intense heatupon a peculiar kind of rock, were of a bright vermilion near the top,gradually changing into darker shades as the eye followed them deeperand deeper till the outline was lost in the depths of the mightycauldron. The inky clouds, which seemed to heave like black masses ofcotton wool far down in the abyss, left the imagination to performacrobatic feats as it attempted to picture the possible depths that laybelow. The thing was weird, terrible, fear-inspiring. It looked like amighty crucible in which infernal things might have been manufactured inthe days when the world was taking shape.
The rays of the westering sun beat upon the sides directly opposite ourpoint of observation, and the colours seemed to leap from the rock. Itglowed in a manner that was indescribable. Sudden flashes came from itas if the vermilion mass was studded with blazing carbuncles, but thefascinating beauty of the part that was exposed to the rays was inviolent contrast to the cold depths where the mind pictured a bodyfalling through leagues of space.
For about five minutes no one spoke. The awful suddenness with which thething had appeared in our path throttled conversation. An inner selfconnected the pit with the singular feeling of depression which hadgripped us the moment we landed upon the island, and we stoodbreathless, wondering stupidly how we had sensed the vermilion-linedhorror into which the path led.
It was the Professor who broke the silence. The momentary awe which heexperienced when the strange freak of nature sprang up before his eyeswas dispelled by the vanity which prompted him to air his knowledgeconcerning the cause of the vivid colours which seemed to radiate fromthe walls. He prattled upon the effect of heat upon minerals till hemade us dizzy, and Holman broke in upon his chatter with a question thathe fired point blank at Leith.
"But what did we climb up here for?" asked the youngster. "Did we comefor the view alone?"
Leith grinned as he surveyed the questioner. "No, we didn't come for theview," he answered. "It happens to be on the way to our destination."
Holman looked around at the basalt walls that hemmed us in on bothsides, and then glanced at the pit in front.
"But we can go no farther," he said.
Leith's smile spread across his ugly flat face. "You are too young toknow everything," he sneered.
The youngster's eyes opened as he looked again at the circular pit withits brilliantly tinted sides. The answer perplexed him, and he waitedanxiously for an explanation.
"But how can we?" he asked.
Leith stood for a moment before replying, then he moved closer to theedge of the crater and pointed down.
"The road is directly beneath you," he remarked. "If you come closer tothe edge you can see it." Holman glanced at me in amazement, and movedby the one impulse we stepped toward the ledge. The rim of the vast pit,at the point where Leith was standing, was composed of porphyry of adark-green shade, and as we neared the edge we noticed that this hadbeen worn to that peculiar velvety smoothness that one notices on thepillars of Indian temples, where the sweaty hands of millions ofworshippers have helped in the polishing process through unnumberedcenturies.
Leith noticed that our glances were directed upon the peculiar polishedportion of the rim, and his grin broadened.
"You won't be the first to go over on to the track below," he drawled."If I had a dollar for every man who slipped over here since the worldbegan I wouldn't bother with specimens for American and Europeanmuseums. See, the ledge is directly beneath, and it leads away to theright."
We stretched out our necks and looked, and I tried to thrust back theexclamation that came to my lips. Directly beneath the polished part ofthe rim, and about four feet below it, was a ledge barely three feetwide, and this narrow path wound away to the right and disappearedthrough a cavernous opening in the brightly tinted walls of the crater.The ledge was bare and unprotected, polished to the same velvetysmoothness as the spot on the rim near which we stood, and when onelooked at it and then let his eyes glance over the infernal depths thatwere immediately beneath, the brain reeled with thoughts of the dangerto which a climber would be exposed while making his way along it to thecavern in the wall.
Holman took a great breath of air and turned savagely upon Leith.
"What sort of a fool game are you up to?" he cried. "What do you mean?"
Leith's lower jaw came forward menacingly. "You had better hold yourtongue!" he roared. "If you don't I'll--I'll----"
He stopped and glared at the young fellow, a murderous expressioncreeping over his sallow face. The half-voiced objection to the routehad stirred all the sleeping devil in him, and the big stubby fingerscrooked as if certain they would be called upon to grip Holman's throat.
"You'll do what?" asked the youngster coolly.
"I'll bundle you back to the yacht!" screamed the giant. "You've beenallowed to come on this trip through the good nature of ProfessorHerndon, but you mustn't think you have any voice in the direction ofaffairs."
Holman did not reply. The dangers of the path over which it was evidentthat Leith intended to take us dazed him, and he looked at me as ifasking confirmation of his opinions.
"But the young ladies?" I inquired, looking at Leith. "Do you expectthem to go down on to that path?"
"I don't expect the young ladies to do anything against theirinclinations," he answered blandly. "They have come with the expeditionthrough no urging from me. Regarding the ledge, there is absolutely nodanger, and it is the only path by which we can reach the interior ofthe island. Soma, go over the rim and show them."
Edith and Barbara Herndon, with their father, moved up closer to theedge as the grinning Kanaka stepped forward to obey Leith's order. Hewalked quickly to the polished porphyry slab, moved cautiously to theextreme rim, then, turning his back on the crater, he dropped upon hishands and knees and lowered himself down till only his grinning faceappeared above the top.
We crept closer and watched him walk along the ledge toward the cavern,apparently unaffected by thoughts of the death which a slip of his footwould bring upon him. Returning to the spot beneath the polishedslipping-off place he put his muscular hands into two clefts in the slababove and drew himself up on to the solid earth.
"No danger," he cried. "All boys go over here before they could callthemselves men. That long, long time ago."
The Professor grabbed his notebook as he heard the explanation, and heimmediately proceeded to deluge the Kanaka with questions.
"What was that?" he squeaked. "You say all the boys had to climb overthere?"
"That's so," grinned Soma. "This place make 'em test. Young boy go overthis quick he make plenty good fighting man. Feller go over slow he nogood."
The Professor's pencil moved quicker than the pen of a courtstenographer. The Kanaka's remark had brought him much copy, and thedangers of the path were forgotten as he jotted down the information.
"And they went over here?" he cried, his eyes wide open as he gazed atthe edge of the crater.
"Right over here," grinned Soma. "See rock mighty slippery here. Allboys' hands and feet do that. Polish it mighty fine."
"But surely this test is not carried on at the present time?" cried thescientist. "When was this wonderful custom in force?"
"About the time that Christopher Columbus was paddling to America,"replied Leith. "There are no natives on the Isle of Tears now. Soma isspeaking of a time when these islands were inhabited."
The Professor gurgled like a drowning mule. "This is a most interestingmorsel of information," he murmured. "Hand me my camera, Barbara; I wishto take a snapshot of the place."
The delay irritated Leith,
but he kept his temper in check while theProfessor fussed and focussed to get a good view of the spot.
"The old fool should be in a padded cell," growled Holman. "He's so busydigesting that tale that he's not thinking of the dangers of this path.I'm going to speak to him aside."
"I hope you have better luck than I had," I whispered. "I bullied him aswe were climbing the slope, and I believe he complained of me to Leith.He sees a mental picture of himself with bay leaves on his brow, and hewouldn't consider the nerves of twenty daughters."
I was right in my prophecy. When Holman approached the old maniac heruffled up like an angry
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