I heard Holman give a mutteredorder. A knife sawed the cords, a pair of hands gripped my heels andflung me forward, and as I fell clear of the groove the stone horrorcrashed back into its bed with a jolt that shook the huge table! Iopened my eyes to see Kaipi looking at the face of the dancer he hadstabbed in the back as the brute was muttering his prayer!
"Oh hell!" said the Fijian. "Me thought him Soma. Me made mistake! Megoing kill Soma, he kill Toni, Toni all same my brother, work long timewith me at Suva!"
"Hurry up and cut these ropes," cried Holman. "There are two more ofthose devils and they'll be back before we get the cramp out of ourmuscles."
Kaipi sprang to obey, but when our bonds were cut away, we found that wecould not get to our feet. Legs and arms were completely numbed, and themany abrasions that we had come by during the towing process to which wehad been subjected made Kaipi's efforts to restore circulation byrubbing a species of torture that would surely have earned thecommendation of Torquemada if it had been brought under his notice.
"Narrow squeak, Verslun," remarked Holman, as he endeavoured to get tohis knees. "I wonder where those two other devils went to work themachinery."
"They must be close," I whispered. "Drag us over to the edge, Kaipi.They'll surely come up to see how the job was done or to see what isdelaying their pal."
Kaipi helped us over to the edge of the table, and while he was doing sohe related briefly how he came to be on hand at the opportune moment.Our little expedition to the stone table had passed the Fijian soonafter the trinity had taken us in tow, and Kaipi's eyes had mistaken thebiggest of the three natives for Soma. Revenge for Toni's death beingthe one motive that inspired him, he had followed the procession,watched from the bushes till the other two dancers had left Soma'sdouble with us on the top of the table, and had then climbed quietly upand knifed the officiating wizard while that person was exhorting thestone centipede to make a good job of Holman and me. The matter of ourrescue had been an afterthought. Strictly speaking, he deserved no greatamount of praise for dragging us out of danger, as he frankly admittedthat he was waiting for a good chance to attack the person who resembledSoma, without having any particular worry whether the stone slab woulddescend before the opportunity arrived.
"Never mind, Kaipi," said Holman, peering cautiously over the edge ofthe table, "I'm satisfied that you were handy at the moment withoutconsidering whether you came to help us or for some other purpose."
"Toni all the same brother to me," muttered the Fijian, dimlyunderstanding the meaning of the remark; "me kill Soma pretty damnsoon."
"Quite so," murmured Holman. "We'll give our consent to that operation,but keep quiet for the present till our two friends come back to see howneatly the old centipede fixed us."
We remained silent, but not inactive. As we waited for the missing pairwe rubbed our limbs carefully, and at the end of ten minutes we began tofeel alive. Our revolvers had been lost from our pockets during the madrush through the night--Leith had been too intent on kicking us to orderhis guard to search us for arms--and now we had nothing but our barehands with which to do combat with a pair of dancers. But we thought wecould do a lot with bare hands when we glanced at the spot where thestone centipede had crashed back to its bed, A vision of that devilishcarving standing above one in the moonlight was enough to stimulate aperson to herculean tasks when he understood that failure would bringhim again under its ghastly shadow.
For about twenty minutes we waited patiently. Kaipi had asserted thatthe two savages had slipped into the jungle growth after they had leftthe table, and it was evident that they had gone to some undergroundpassage that connected with one of the pillars of the altar, throughwhich the crude mechanism for lifting the stone slab had been operated.With one eye always to the dramatic, the wizards of the long ago hadbuilt the altar so that the common worshippers surrounding the place ondays when the centipede was called upon to mash some unfortunate victimcould not see how the slab was lifted, and would thus put the upliftingof the thing down to supernatural agency. It was the tribal Houdin wholaid the foundation of many a strange belief amongst savage races.
"Must be waiting for him to come to them," said Holman. "We'll give thema few minutes longer."
It was Kaipi's sharp eyes that made the discovery. The pair camecautiously out of the bushes immediately underneath the tree whichHolman and I had climbed to obtain a view of the surface of the tabletwo nights before, and they crossed the clearing with hesitating steps.They evidently expected the officiating wizard to announce in sportingphraseology that the centipede had won the engagement with one swiftblow to the body, and when no news was forthcoming they were puzzled.
They confabbed in the centre of the clearing, and then hailed the tablein the strange tongue. Receiving no answer, they again debated withmuch vigour, and, finally taking their courage in their hands, they cameforward with quickened steps.
We crept close to the edge, careful not to peer over while the pair wereclimbing up. As far as I was aware we had no plans made for theirreception. Holman and I had no weapons, neither had the two dancers;Kaipi had the ugly short-bladed knife with which he had dispatchedSoma's double.
The puffing of the climbing pair came to us. They came near and nearer.A black arm came up over the edge of the table and clawed at themoss-grown stone, but while Holman and I reached forward with theintention of gripping the climber by the throat, Kaipi upset our plansby driving the blade of the knife into the back of the huge paw that wasendeavouring to get a grip!
A tremendous howl of pain came from the owner of the hand, the pinionedmember was torn from beneath the blade, and as we pushed our heads overthe edge, the top climber fell backward, swept his companion from thepillar, and the pair struck the coral rock beneath the table with a thudthat was suggestive of broken bones. The native with the skewered handpicked himself up and dashed toward the trees, but the other remained atthe foot of the pillar, and his position led us to believe that his neckhad been broken by the fall.
"My knife!" cried Kaipi. "He knocked my knife down!"
The Fijian swung himself over the edge, and with monkey-like agilityslipped down the pillar. He shouted up to us that he thought that theman on the ground was dead, but having found his precious knife, heproceeded to set all doubts upon the matter at rest.
"Soma better dodge that little fire eater," muttered Holman. "I thoughthim a coward last night, but it looks as if he's a fighter when once hegets started."
As we were unable to slip down the stone pillar in the same manner asthe natives, we found the piece of rope by which the three dancers hadhauled us up to the top, and making it secure upon a stone projection welowered ourselves to the ground.
"Now," said Holman, "we must make a new start, and if we get beat inthis round we deserve all that the big fiend who has brought all thistrouble about can do to us. Kaipi, you're a friend of mine for all time.Shake hands."
The grinning Fijian shook hands with both of us, and we moved toward thetrees, heading in the direction of the spot where Leith had kicked us sovigorously a few hours before.
CHAPTER XVIII
BARBARA'S MESSENGER
We had a healthy respect for the deviltry of Leith and his friends as weturned our backs upon the lonely throne of the centipede, but the cry of"Father" which Edith Herndon had uttered was still ringing in our ears,and we were anxious to get within hitting distance of the big,treacherous ruffian. A mental review of the engagements made us feelrather light-hearted as we pushed through the tangle. If there were onlysix native dancers upon the island at the opening of the conflict in theCavern of Skulls, we had reduced that number to one, while the bullet inLeith's shoulder would depreciate his fighting ability for some time.Outside the carriers, who, as far as we knew, were neutral in thematter, we had as opponents, Leith, One Eye, Soma, and the dancer whosehand had been punctured by Kaipi, and the knowledge that we were moreevenly matched brought us some consolation.
But the fact that Edith and Barbara Herndon were in the powe
r of thescoundrel brought thoughts that cast a damper upon the little scrap ofjoy we derived from reckoning up the casualties of the enemy. Thepassion which Leith displayed after receiving Holman's bullet made usrun forward like madmen each time we recalled the diabolical frenzy thathe exhibited. We could not think of a good plan to circumvent the brute.The jungle hampered and maddened us, and although we knew that we hadgone about our work in a blundering fashion, the circumstances were suchthat we could not improve our strategy in the future.
We plunged on till nearly midnight, then Holman called a halt.
"We must sleep," he said. "One can watch while the other two get somerest."
Kaipi, who declared that he was never less inclined for slumber, agreedto take first
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