Part 24 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIX

LEITH SCORES

The one-eyedhis handiwork From his point of observation he watched the pile of rocks and the surrounding bushes, and the absence of movement convinced him that the job had been well done He commenced to enerating inside, and at intervals he ed to produce a peculiar noise that rean to think that One Eye, besides being deaf and duly-shaped head He strutted up and down, and narrowly escaped toppling over the ledge through atterand finale to the insane actions proineered the landslide

The afternoon had lengthened out before Maru returned with Holman and Kaipi, and we hurriedly considered the best course to pursue One Eye had been with Leith when Maru deserted, so it was obvious that ere not far fro place

”If we could catch this lunatic on the cliff?” muttered Holman ”Gee! we could tickle hiht into the haunt”

”He's deaf,” I said; ”there's a good chance of roping him in if we could scale the cliff”

”Me clia track, drop down, breakerowled Holuide Do you understand? He knohere Leith is hiding, and if we could get hold of hi”

Maru borrowed Kaipi's knife, nodded confidently as we adjured hi the track so that he could climb to the level of the one-eyed person's perch before atte to creep upon him We sat down to await developments The witless one was evidently a lookout, and it was advisable to wait and see the success of Maru's expedition before we atte wait Maru didn't intend to take any chances by closing in hurriedly, and it was nearly two hours after his departure beforehis head rise above a boulder high up over the spot where One Eye was keeping his vigil It was evidently not the first ti, and his fine tactics, which should have called forth praise, severely tried the small amount of patience that we possessed Holman cursed softly beneath his breath as Maru sat for tentorock, and my own nails burrowed into the palenius in his own particular line, and I think he took more than ordinary precautions so that his success would prove to Holman that Barbara Herndon had not overpaid hi as a reward for his desertion from Leith Maru had no idea of the sentister took; and he thought that Holht that no services could be rendered that would be half as valuable as the trinket The unsenti lover wanted the ring as a keepsake of the girl who had won his heart on board _The Waif_

”Caesar's Ghost! Why doesn't he hurry?” cried Hol ground!”

It looked as if the witless one was really going to move, and Maru had still some fifty yards to cover before he would be directly above the other's head Our nerves were in such a state that we felt inclined to screarab the scout we could probably induce hiuide, but if he escaped us, we pictured ourselves stuh dark caverns with the same lack of results as had marked our trip to the place of skulls

Maru was decreasing the distance by inches Slowly, very sloith all the serpentlike cunning of the savage, he advanced till he was al a survey of the jungle But it was a farewell glance for One Eye If Leith had placed him there to keep watch till he had reached a safe position, the watcher evidently considered that the tioat, and Holroaned

Maru noticed the retreat, and quickened his e he crept upon the other with the swiftness of a leopard creeping upon its prey One Eye's deafness left hi cover whenever the white ht or the left, the native decreased the distance, and we rose to our knees

Then Maru sprang His ht ar toward the cliff without waiting to see the outcoth was ile hold that had been put upon him We were more afraid that One Eye would be choked into insensibility before we reached the post

The big native was sitting astride his captive e gained the ledge, and the prisoner was blinking his one good eye as he stared up at him

We dropped down beside him and took a look at the sun-tanned face He exhibited no fear, and the weak, watery eye showed no glint of intelligence It was plain that his brain was slightly deranged

Holestures we endeavoured to explain anted him to do Neither of us understood the deaf and dumb alphabet, but the alphabet was hardly necessary With much pantoirls, and Kaipi enjoyed hi his knife in front of One Eye's face to signify the fate that awaited hiuide us to the spot The Fijian was so proud of the blade that he could hardly be prevented fro an inch of the steel in the prisoner's body

One Eye, although obviously half-witted, saw that Kaipi was only looking for an excuse to send him to a er signs that he would act as our guide Holes he had in his pockets, strapped his ar the collar of his coat, we signalled to him to step forward and step lively if he wished to delay his journey to the other world till his soul was in a better condition The sun was close to the high ridges in the west, and ished to close with Leith before nightfall

One Eye taxed our cliility of a chaes, and several times Maru was forced to check his speed so that we could keep pace with hi another opportunity to retrieve the blunders we hadvillain's fighting bodyguard to two persons, Soma and the dancer, and if he had not impressed the carriers, we outnuround, and we had already discovered that the Isle of Tears made an ideal retreat for an outlaw

The nearly ile, surrounded by the cliffs that were tunnelled with tre place in which a fewthe side of the cliff for about five hundred yards, then turned into a small canon hardly thirty feet wide, the bottom of which was about twenty yards above the valley from which we had climbed

Our intuition told us that ere near the retreat, and we halted the hurrying guide, and in the shelter of a boulder explained to hiestures that ished to proceed with extreulch that was not more than a stone's throw from the face of the cliff was already dark with the shadows of the hills, and as we suspected that the opening to Leith's refuge was close, ished tothe scattered rocks as covering, we advanced slowly, but before we reached the end the sun had disappeared, and the absence of twilight, noticeable in that latitude, co in a darkness that made it impossible to discern any object that was more than three feet distant

Holuarded hie made it impossible for more than three to move abreast, Kaipi and I crawled in the rear

We were at One Eye's mercy at that moment, but the idiot appeared to be much impressed by the manner in which we had pictured the sure and sudden fate that would fall upon him if we suspected hiripped us as ent forward High above us the stars looked as if they were floating sequins in a sea of dark blue