re standing, and Holman stepped toward it.

"Stay where you are," he said. "If I get lost I'll whistle softly and
you can signal back to me."

He moved away and I was left standing in the opening. A bat banged
heavily against my face, and the odour from the dusty floor irritated my
nostrils so that I had difficulty in restraining myself from sneezing.

It was about twenty minutes before Holman returned. He whistled ever so
softly, and when I replied he came toward me hurriedly.

"Just walk out to that spot of moonlight," he whispered. "I'll keep
guard on the door. Feel around there and tell me what you think of it."

I did as he directed. I walked forward to the spot and felt around with
my hands. My fingers came in contact with round, smooth objects that
filled every available inch of a stone table in front of me, and with a
feeling of revulsion I hurried back to the mouth of the corridor. Holman
gripped my arm and put a question.

"Gave you a shock, eh?"

"Why, they're skulls!" I breathed hoarsely.

"Yes, hundreds of 'em," he said. "The place is chock full of them. This
island must have been the burying ground of all the adjoining groups,
and it's the atmosphere of the place that keeps the niggers away from
it. Leith has been wise to that. The present generation of islanders
know nothing of the things that happened here hundreds of years back,
but they've got an inborn horror of the place, and they keep away."

"Well, what are we to do?"

"Wait here."

"But if he doesn't come this way?"

"He must," he answered. "It's the only way out, I think. We can't go
across this wilderness, so it's safer to await developments here."

We hadn't long to wait. From a point directly opposite our position, and
at a distance that we judged to be two hundred yards away, a bobbing
light broke into the wall of darkness and moved directly toward us.
Holman gripped my arm and pulled me forward to the stone tables upon
which the skulls were laid, and side by side we crouched and waited.

It was the ship's lantern that Soma had carried in front of Leith that
was now moving upon us. Its yellow light showed the parrot-feather mat
and headdress of the big Kanaka, while the hum of voices, which drifted
across the vast space of the cavern, informed us that the dancers who
had assisted at the ceremony were returning with Leith and the one-eyed
white man.

Holman's breath came hot upon my cheek. There was no necessity for
speech. I