“Narrow squeak, Verslun,” remarked Holman, as he endeavoured to get to his knees.  “I wonder where those two other devils went to work the machinery.”

“They must be close,” I whispered.  “Drag us over to the edge, Kaipi.  They’ll surely come up to see how the job was done or to see what is delaying their pal.”

Kaipi helped us over to the edge of the table, and while he was doing so he related briefly how he came to be on hand at the opportune moment.  Our little expedition to the stone table had passed the Fijian soon after the trinity had taken us in tow, and Kaipi’s eyes had mistaken the biggest of the three natives for Soma.  Revenge for Toni’s death being the one motive that inspired him, he had followed the procession, watched from the bushes till the other two dancers had left Soma’s double with us on the top of the table, and had then climbed quietly up and knifed the officiating wizard while that person was exhorting the stone centipede to make a good job of Holman and me.  The matter of our rescue had been an afterthought.  Strictly speaking, he deserved no great amount of praise for dragging us out of danger, as he frankly admitted that he was waiting for a good chance to attack the person who resembled Soma, without having any particular worry whether the stone slab would descend before the opportunity arrived.

“Never mind, Kaipi,” said Holman, peering cautiously over the edge of the table, “I’m satisfied that you were handy at the moment without considering whether you came to help us or for some other purpose.”

“Toni all the same brother to me,” muttered the Fijian, dimly understanding the meaning of the remark; “me kill Soma pretty damn soon.”

“Quite so,” murmured Holman.  “We’ll give our consent to that operation, but keep quiet for the present till our two friends come back to see how neatly the old centipede fixed us.”

We remained silent, but not inactive.  As we waited for the missing pair we rubbed our limbs carefully, and at the end of ten minutes we began to feel alive.  Our revolvers had been lost from our pockets during the mad rush through the night—­Leith had been too intent on kicking us to order his guard to search us for arms—­and now we had nothing but our bare hands with which to do combat with a pair of dancers.  But we thought we could do a lot with bare hands when we glanced at the spot where the stone centipede had crashed back to its bed, A vision of that devilish carving standing above one in the moonlight was enough to stimulate a person to herculean tasks when he understood that failure would bring him again under its ghastly shadow.