ndly in the tracks of Holman, nerved somewhat
by the thought that the trail he passed over would carry me. The dangers
were hidden by the darkness, and my imagination was too stunned by the
happenings of the night to make any endeavour to torture my nerves by
picturing them.

But the reappearance of the moon brought an opportunity to my eyes, and
I wondered if we could negotiate the goat track which the youngster was
scrambling over. I turned my face to the wall and crawled timorously in
the rear. Higher and higher we went with bleeding fingers and knees, but
at last Holman reached the top, and I dragged myself up beside him.

"Get up!" he cried savagely. "We must kill the devil before morning."

We got to our feet and started to run toward what we knew to be the
direction of the cavern. The ground sloped gradually, and we reasoned
that it would continue to fall away till we reached the mouth of the
cavern by which Leith had entered from the far side. For once we had a
clear run. At that height there was little vegetation, and at a mad gait
we sped across a bare stretch where the only obstacles were lumps of
rock that were scattered around in great profusion.

"If--if we could find the place and block the devil and all his gang
inside," gasped Holman.

"That's too good a thing to entertain," I spluttered.

"We might, Verslun! We might!" he cried. "I've got a feeling that we've
been picked to put that devil out of existence. That's why I'm taking a
chance in leaving the girls back there at the camp. I believe I'm going
to kill him, but whether it is to-night or some other time I don't
know."

"The sooner the better," I stammered. "From what Kaipi said about that
dance, something out of the way is going to happen, and I've got a
hunch that the something will happen to us."

Holman remained silent, and we raced on, moving down the slope at an
angle that we judged would bring us somewhere near the entrance. At
moments my brain assured me that it was a mad proceeding, but something
of the certainty with which the youngster looked upon himself as the
Fate-appointed destroyer of Leith came to me as I raced beside him, and
I put aside the fears for Edith Herndon's safety that besieged me as I
ran. The last doubt about Leith's treachery had been chased away by the
dance we had witnessed, and I felt assured that the man was a monster, a
vile thing, who, for some purpose that I could not allow myself to
ponder over, had b