I laughed at his gloomy forebodings, and as Miss Barbara Herndon came on deck at that moment he raced away and left me to my own meditations.

My thoughts were mixed.  I had pleasant and unpleasant ones.  If Leith was the scoundrel that Holman suspected, the two girls were in danger, and now as we neared the island where they would leave the yacht to accompany their father, the clutch of fear was upon me.  On The Waif I felt that I had some little power, but on land, more especially on the lonely island toward which we were heading, that feeling of protectorship which the sailorman has for his passengers would be lost.  If Leith knew the island, and it was evident that he had visited it before, any villainy that he contemplated would be held in check till he was ashore and in command of the expedition and I would be powerless.

I recognized that Holman’s fears were without solid foundation.  They were transmitted through Barbara Herndon, but I also recognized that the elder sister would hardly support the statements unless she had good grounds for her anxiety.  Her woman’s intuition had branded Leith’s motives in bringing the Professor into the Islands as bad, and the sallow-faced giant could not erase the impression.  The actual reason for trickery was a matter of speculation.  Professor Herndon was wealthy; it was his money that had fitted out the expedition, but how Leith expected to benefit himself by treachery was more than I could tell.  Still, try as I would to fight off the impressions that Holman’s tongue had fixed within my mind, I was unable to alter the opinion I had formed of the man the moment I met him.  There was an atmosphere about the yacht that was unexplainable.  Try as I could to find legitimate grounds for fears I could not.  The Professor was a scientist who wished to study certain things the whereabouts of which were known to Leith.  Apparently the Professor was satisfied with the bargain he had made.  Leith, as the two girls had informed Holman, had called upon their father at the Langham Hotel in Wynyard Square, Sydney, and, after fascinating the old man with his stories, had presented his credentials and made a bargain with him which resulted in the chartering of the yacht.  His former life was a mystery that he guarded jealously from the probes which the girls had skilfully endeavoured to use.  It was clear that he had spent many years in the Islands, but that fact is not one that is generally put forward as a recommendation of good character.  The South Sea holds a large percentage of the nimble people who manage to be in another spot when Dame Justice throws her lariat.  The Law of the Fringe has made curiosity a criminal offence, and a new name covers more than charity.

I had had little chance of speaking to Edith Herndon since the moment I came aboard, but I determined, after I had looked at the matter from every side, that I would ask her point blank if I could be of any assistance.  Leith’s face was the only prop he put forward as a support to his claims of respectability, and his face betrayed him.