Holman, who had been staring in silence at the fire for some twenty minutes, turned toward me after the Professor had retired.

“Sleepy?” asked the youngster.

“Worse than that,” I muttered.

“Let’s turn in.”

The “turning in” was an easy performance.  We lay down on the pile of leaves which the carriers had scraped together, pulled a rug over us, and in spite of the surroundings I was soon fast asleep.

It was Holman’s fist that disturbed my slumber.  It came with some force against my short rib, and I sat upright.  The moonlight made it possible to see across the valley, while every object around the camp was clearly outlined.

Holman was sitting up on his leafy bed, and I put a question breathlessly as I jerked myself upright.

“What’s up?”

“Didn’t he say that this place was uninhabited?” asked the youngster.

“Yes,” I answered.  “Why?”

“Well, some one has just pushed his head and shoulders up above that stone table,” whispered Holman.  “He put his head up, looked across at us for about five minutes, then dodged quickly back.”

“You weren’t dreaming?”

“Dreaming?  Rot!  I haven’t closed my eyes since we retired!”

I threw off the rug and looked around.  Leith lay under the maupei tree in the same position as we had seen him in at the moment I lay down.  Near him the Professor snored dismally, probably dreaming dreams of the greatness that would be thrust upon him in the near future.  No sounds came from the tent that sheltered the two girls, but a combination of curious nasal sounds rose from the spot where the natives were sleeping around their fire.

“It might be one of the niggers,” whispered Holman.  “Let us see.”

We stole silently across the intervening space, and, crouching in the shadows, counted the sleepers.  There were seven.  The prowler that Holman had seen upon the top of the stone structure was evidently an outsider, and the knowledge brought no pleasant feelings.  Leith had assured the Professor on several occasions that the island was uninhabited, yet it was quite possible that natives from the adjoining groups had visited it during the period that elapsed since his last visit.  Yet we felt that it was no stray visitor from another island that had peeped over the top of the massive table, and it was with a suspicious eye upon the sleeping Leith that we crept quietly over the coral rocks toward the tremendous stone piers of the structure that rose like a monster gateway against the gray sky.  The atmosphere of that place was indescribable.  We seemed to be in the midst of relics that were older than the pyramids.  The temple of Luxor may seem impressive by moonlight, but the knowledge we possess of Thebes in its glory somewhat modifies the awe which we would feel if we knew nothing of the people who had raised the great monuments in the city of Amen-Ra.  And Holman and I knew nothing of the dead race that erected