“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 a young lady who was well able to look after herself.”

“That’s all right,” stammered the youngster.  “Perhaps I said too much, but I had to speak to you.”

“And I’m mighty glad you did!” I cried.

He gripped my hand and turned away, leaving me to my own reflections.  It was a wonderful night.  The silvery sea through which The Waif drove a path with plunging forefoot awoke strange dreams and fancies within my brain.  All the mystery of the tropic night welled up around me, and my soul seemed to have suddenly awakened to the beauty of life.  The veil of morbid pessimism that came before my eyes during the weary days I had spent upon the beach at Levuka was torn aside, and a wave of gladness entered my being.  I felt that the voyage would be an eventful one to me, and I tramped the poop with a light step.  Occasionally the sallow features of Leith persisted in rising before my mental vision to blot out the dream face that was continually before me, but I resolutely put the Professor’s partner from my mind and fed myself upon the visions bred by the splendour of the night.