Holman poured out a torrent of questions which the smiling messenger endeavoured to answer to the best of his ability.  In pigeon English he informed us that he had deserted Leith’s camp about midnight; that the big ruffian had turned abruptly from the direction he was moving in at the time we caught up with him, and that Holman’s bullet had caused him serious inconvenience.  The two girls and the Professor were in charge of Soma and the one-eyed white man, who, we now learned, was deaf and dumb.  It was while One Eye was on guard that Barbara Herndon had been able to bribe the Raretongan to throw the strength of his muscles upon our side of the argument.

Holman, with lover-like longing for anything owned by the lady of his choice, attempted to put the emerald ring in his pocket, but Maru objected strongly.  The smile fled from his face, and his broken English nearly strangled him in his efforts to pour out enough of it to acquaint Holman of the nature of the agreement which he had entered into with Barbara Herndon.

“Me only show you ring, that’s all!” he cried.  “You look, know little missee send me, ring mine all time.  You give back.”

“You had better give it back to him,” I cautioned.  “He has got the idea into his head, and it will take a lot of arguing to convince him that Miss Barbara didn’t give it to him to keep.”

“But she didn’t!” cried Holman.  “Why would she give him a ring?  She just gave him a loan of it to let him see that she had sent him to us.”

“My ring all time,” protested Maru.  “That my pay fight mighty good for you.”

“Give it up to him,” I advised.  “He’s only an overgrown child, and he has set his mind on it.”

“But, Verslun, I know she wouldn’t do that!” protested the lover.  “Barbara sent me this as——­”

“Oh, I know,” I cried, “but we want fighters now, and Maru is a pretty athletic person.”

“Me damn good fighter!” cried the Raretongan.  “Me plentee good fighter if me get ring.”

Holman gave up the trinket with a snort of disgust, and a few minutes afterward, when we were tramping along, I made it my business to drop back beside Maru and advise him to keep the ring out of the youngster’s sight till we had rescued Miss Barbara.  If the native had displayed his reward it was highly probable that the lovesick Holman, with nerves on the raw edge from want of sleep and worry, would have pounced upon the mighty Maru and endeavoured to obtain possession of what he fondly thought was a token of affection from his beloved.

But the arrival of the messenger was worth more than the emerald ring to us at that moment.  He had more woodcraft than Kaipi, who had spent most of his time upon the ocean, and his information regarding the direction in which Leith was now heading saved us many weary hours of marching.