The White Waterfall

by James Francis Dwyer

"That's mighty plain."

  The Professor dived for his lead pencil. He had a scent for copy that aNew York reporter would have envied.

  "How is that, Soma?" he spluttered.

  "Wizard men say so," grinned the Kanaka. "Wizard men tell much truth."

  "But what did the wizard men say?"

  "They say that only the bad boys can slip," answered Soma. "No good meneither. Big hole just for bad people. That what witch doctors say long,long time ago. They call it Ledge of Death."

  The Professor's pencil raced madly across the paper, and Holman lookedback at the black depths with a grim smile upon his clean-cut features.

  "I suppose there have been exceptions," he remarked quietly. "There areexceptions to every rule, and I suppose an occasional bad egg escaped afall into this abyss in spite of the wizard men's prophecy."

  Leith looked up quickly, and he flushed angrily when he found that theyoung fellow's eyes were upon him. Barbara Herndon gave a littlehysterical laugh, and the Professor stopped writing and looked aroundinquiringly as if he was in doubt whether he had missed something ofimportance.

  "What is it?" he inquired. "I didn't hear."

  "It was nothing," replied Leith, in his slow, drawling voice. "Holmansuggested that the word of the wizard men might not be infallible, andlest we have some one who ran the gauntlet under false colours we hadbetter move on so as to keep the exception out of danger."

  The cavern, into which we passed from the slippery ledge, did not leadinto the interior of the mountain as one would be inclined to thinkafter viewing it from the top of the crater. We had hardly traversed itfor more than sixty yards when we were once again in the brightsunlight, in what appeared to be a deep, wide valley in the centre ofthe island. The basalt cliffs surrounded the place on every side, andalthough we had great doubts regarding Leith's veracity, we feltinclined to accept his word that the path by which we had come was theonly one by which we could reach the spot where we stood. The circles ofblack rocks above the tops of the highest trees, though indescribablybeautiful, were strangely repellent in their weird conformation. Theystruck us as the walls of a prison from which the only way to libertylay across the path in the crater.

  The trees--ebony, chatak, dakua, and sandalwood--grew here in greaternumbers than we had met them on the first day, while the lawyer-vinesand thorny creepers rivalled the devilish meshes that had held us backas we climbed the slope to the Vermilion Pit. Like green serpents theycovered the treetops, and as we struck forward in the same order as wehad marched on the first day the solemnity of the place was moreapparent than ever. It appeared that Nature, for some reason of her own,had made the place difficult of access, and that our invasion wassomething that the trees and vines protested against.

  But in spite of the strange melancholy of the place, the two girls werein much better spirits than they had been on the previous day. Thesuccessful passage over the ledge had brought about a reaction, and aremark of Holman's caused Barbara Herndon to laugh with all thespontaneity that was noticeable upon _The Waif_. The effect of thatripple of laughter was startling. The sound rebounded from the rockycliffs, cannoned against the barriers opposite, and then bouncedbackward and forward till the whole atmosphere of the valley seemedalive with the laughter of sprites. For quite five minutes we stoodlistening, then the silence chased the last faint echoes out across thecliffs, and we breathed again.

  "It is the Valley of Echoes," said Leith. "The cliffs throw back thesound in a marvellous manner."

  "I'll not laugh again, not in this spot," murmured Barbara Herndon."Those noises chilled my blood."

  In spite of a blazing sun we found the air unpleasantly cool in theshaded spots as we struggled slowly through the undergrowth. The moistflabbiness of uncommon tropical plants startled us whenever the leavesbrushed against our faces and hands, while the constant popping of thegreen pods of the nupu, the sounds resembling nothing so much as thegroans of a person in extreme pain, did not have a cheering effect uponthe party. The Professor was the only one who seemed to be actuallyenjoying himself, and even his joy was tempered by a malignant Fate.While endeavouring to dot down some information tendered him by Soma, hehad tripped upon a vine that was in wait for such an opportunity, andhe skinned his nose badly upon a projecting rock.

  But rocks or vines would not dampen the Professor's ardour. He sawhimself upon a pedestal that he would build out of the Polynesian loreand the relics which he would collect. With Spartan fortitude he wouldnot allow the expedition to halt for one moment while the injured nosewas being attended to, and he took up the interrupted matter with Somabefore the blood had been staunched.

  Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eyeupon Soma and the other five carriers, whispered a message.

  "Soma much friend of big man."

  "How do you know?" I questioned.

  "Talk to him out back of camp last night," he murmured. "Me make believesleep, me watch. I think I kill him to-day."

  "Kaipi," I whispered, "if you wait a little while I promise you thatyou'll have your revenge for Toni's death. You watch Soma and theothers, and when the time comes you can give him all he deserves. If youstuck a knife into him here Leith would shoot you."

  Kaipi nodded his head and trudged forward as Soma came sidling towardus. The Fijian's desire to get revenge for his "all same brother'sdeath" was something that might be to our advantage later on, and Ilooked upon Kaipi as a staunch ally in the event of trouble.

  We ate our midday meal in the sombre silence and again plunged forward.The appearance of gayety which Barbara Herndon had tried to assume afterwe had left the Vermilion Pit had passed away, and once again there wasthe look of pathetic helplessness upon the faces of the two girls.During the luncheon Holman and I endeavoured to make conversation, butthe thoughts of both were upon their surroundings, and they answeredquestions with an effort. The prison-like appearance of the valley, andthe utter absence of sound, both of bird and insect life, had adepressing effect upon their nerves.

  Holman's face showed that the mental sufferings of the two sisters hadworked him into a decidedly unfriendly state of mind toward theProfessor and the big brute who was leading the old scientist on the madhunt, and another quarrel was barely averted during the early afternoon.Leith suggested that Edith Herndon should walk beside him so that hemight assist her over the rough parts of the way, and in theconversation that ensued the youngster asserted that the girl was inbetter company when she was walking with her sister and himself. Leith'svoice rose to a roar as he made another threat regarding what he woulddo if the youngster did not hold his tongue, but Holman was defiant, andan immediate conflict was only averted by the tact of Edith Herndon.

  The afternoon closed in with us still tramping on. The blood-red sunslipped hurriedly toward the basalt barriers that encircled the valley,and as I glanced at the cliffs the picture of the creepy ledge, that wasour only way back to the outer world, was continually in my mind. Theknowledge that the velvety polish upon the block of porphyry was broughtthere by the hands of thousands who had once peopled the island orvisited it from the adjacent groups was not provocative of mirth, and Iknew that the feeling that they were journeying in a place that had beenof special veneration in long past centuries was producing a depressingeffect upon the two girls.

  As the tropical twilight fell upon the valley we came to one of thestrange stone structures that are to be found in the Tongan and Cookgroups, and which have puzzled explorers who have sought in vain to finda reason for their construction or an explanation of the methods bywhich a savage people lifted the huge blocks of rock into position.

  The one that suddenly appeared before us was situated on a small slopethat was free from trees and creepers, and as it stood there, black andmassive, one could fancy it part of the ruins of Karnak instead of arelic left by a people that were much below the intelligence of thosewho raised the wonders in the land of the Nile. The four supportingpiers of stone were about four feet square and fully fiftee
n feet inheight, while the immense flat rock that was laid upon them was morethan twelve feet in length and breadth, with a six-foot thickness. Itwas moss-grown and gray, but the supporting pillars had not deviated oneinch from the perpendicular, although the weight upon them wastremendous. The bed of coral rock on which they rested had proved areliable foundation, and the singular structure had scoffed at time.

  The Professor started a lengthy discourse on sacrificial altars themoment we halted, ranging from Stonehenge to Toluca in search ofcomparisons, but we were too tired to give it much attention. Holmanremarked in a whisper that Soma could probably outpoint the Professor ifit came to an array of facts concerning the probable uses of thegigantic table, and when I glanced at the Kanaka, as he stopped tolisten to the