But rocks or vines would not dampen the Professor’s ardour.  He saw himself upon a pedestal that he would build out of the Polynesian lore and the relics which he would collect.  With Spartan fortitude he would not allow the expedition to halt for one moment while the injured nose was being attended to, and he took up the interrupted matter with Soma before the blood had been staunched.

Kaipi worked himself close to me just before midday, and, with one eye upon 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 believe sleep, me watch.  I think I kill him to-day.”

“Kaipi,” I whispered, “if you wait a little while I promise you that you’ll have your revenge for Toni’s death.  You watch Soma and the others, and when the time comes you can give him all he deserves.  If you stuck a knife into him here Leith would shoot you.”

Kaipi nodded his head and trudged forward as Soma came sidling toward us.  The Fijian’s desire to get revenge for his “all same brother’s death” was something that might be to our advantage later on, and I looked 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 after we had left the Vermilion Pit had passed away, and once again there was the look of pathetic helplessness upon the faces of the two girls.  During the luncheon Holman and I endeavoured to make conversation, but the thoughts of both were upon their surroundings, and they answered questions with an effort.  The prison-like appearance of the valley, and the utter absence of sound, both of bird and insect life, had a depressing effect upon their nerves.

Holman’s face showed that the mental sufferings of the two sisters had worked him into a decidedly unfriendly state of mind toward the Professor and the big brute who was leading the old scientist on the mad hunt, and another quarrel was barely averted during the early afternoon.  Leith suggested that Edith Herndon should walk beside him so that he might assist her over the rough parts of the way, and in the conversation that ensued the youngster asserted that the girl was in better company when she was walking with her sister and himself.  Leith’s voice rose to a roar as he made another threat regarding what he would do if the youngster did not hold his tongue, but Holman was defiant, and an immediate conflict was only averted by the tact of Edith Herndon.

The afternoon closed in with us still tramping on.  The blood-red sun slipped hurriedly toward the basalt barriers that encircled the valley, and as I glanced at the cliffs the picture of the creepy ledge, that was our only way back to the outer world, was continually in my mind.  The knowledge that the velvety polish upon the block of porphyry was brought there by the hands of thousands who had once peopled the island or visited it from the adjacent groups was not provocative of mirth, and I knew that the feeling that they were journeying in a place that had been of special veneration in long past centuries was producing a depressing effect upon the two girls.