I had waited some thirty minutes for Holman when I noticed a movement beneath a small bush some fifteen paces to my right.  I watched the spot without moving, and presently a dark figure crept out of the shelter and moved cautiously toward the camp.  Convinced that the visitor was Soma, I pulled out my revolver and waited, wondering as I watched what he intended to do.

The black figure came closer.  He paused to listen to the sounds that came from the fire, and as he lifted his head the moonlight fell across his face, and I put the revolver back in my pocket.

“Kaipi,” I murmured.

The Fijian crept quietly to the spot where I was hiding.

“I come for you,” he muttered.

“Why?”

“Funny things much,” he gurgled.  “Light on mountain, no see from here.  Me watch it, think it something bad.  Come, I’ll show you.”

Holman returned at that moment and I explained what Kaipi had just told me.

“The devil!” muttered the youngster.  “The note said that he would meet them at the Long Gallery.  See, the light is not visible from our camp, and the brute never thought that one of us would be far enough from the camp to notice it.  If it’s a signal we might be able to reach the spot and see what is actually going on.  If we leave things till to-morrow I’m afraid we’ll be too late.”

“But the girls?” I cried.

“We’ll get back,” he replied.  “I told them how everything is, Verslun, and they’re not afraid.  Edith has an automatic pistol that she brought from the yacht, and she’ll use it if she is forced to.  Come on!”

We followed Kaipi into the shadows, the Fijian picking his way with wonderful instinct through the clumps.  At about half a mile from the camp he stopped and pointed to the cliffs.

“Me see light flash way over there,” he whispered.  “You wait and see.”

We crouched down and waited.  The minutes passed slowly, but the black barrier away to the east gave no sign of life.

“I think Kaipi must have sighted a star,” muttered Holman.  “There is nothing—­”

He broke off abruptly and gripped my arm.  High up in the basalt barrier, at a spot about three quarters of a mile from where we were crouched, a tiny flame suddenly appeared, blazed for an instant, then died away again.  Three times it flared up and as quickly died away, but at the third disappearance Holman and I, with the vengeance-seeking Kaipi, were struggling through the network of damp vegetation toward the spot from which the signal had come.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XII

THE DEVIL DANCERS

The snaky vines seemed to us to be leagued with Leith as we tried to force our way to the spot where the tiny flash of light had appeared amongst the rocks.  The lawyer-vines gripped our ankles and flung us upon our faces scores of times, but we scrambled to our feet and rushed on.  Kaipi had made the discovery at an opportune moment.  Now that we were certain that Leith contemplated treachery, the wait through the long night would have maddened us.  We wanted to meet him quickly, and instinct told us that the appointment place mentioned in the note was identical with the spot to which we were fighting our way.