against the angry antagonist who
had landed upon his back. A faint gurgle proved to me that Holman's
fingers had found the neck of the other, and in an incredible short time
the struggle was over.

We parted the bushes and examined the body. It was one of the three nude
natives that had rushed by us on the trail a few hours before, and he
clasped in his right hand a long knife of New Zealand greenstone that
had been inlaid with gold in an intricate design. We had never seen such
a weapon. The crude knives that I had seen throughout the islands were
not to be compared to the wonderfully polished blade that had been
intended to free either Holman or myself from all earthly cares, while
the metalwork showed a craftmanship that made one wonder how many
centuries had elapsed since the Polynesian artist who had fashioned the
weapon had been laid in the Cavern of Skulls. The sinnet work and the
parquetry of split bamboo, which comprise the highest handicraft of the
present-day islander, could hardly be classed with the exceedingly
beautiful work upon the blade.

Holman turned up the end of the haft, pointed to a delicate design of a
centipede, and then looked down at the back of the savage upon the
ground. The similarity of the two designs was immediately apparent, but
while the one on the greenstone had been executed by an artist, the
figure upon the back of the dancer was a crude example of scar-tattooing
that required some imagination to puzzle out what object it was supposed
to represent. As we glanced at each other the significance of the
serpentlike dance, the marks upon the bodies of the dancers and on the
knife and stone table, was plainly evident. The island was sacred to the
centipede, and in some way Leith had made himself a chief wizard amongst
the few savages who still performed the rites which had once made the
Isle of Tears a place of particular importance to the surrounding
groups.

Holman took the long greenstone knife, and we crept quietly away in the
direction taken by Kaipi. We had one enemy less upon the island. Not
counting the carriers, we reckoned that the active opposition comprised
Leith, Soma, the one-eyed white man, and either two or three of the
"tivo" dancers, and these made a formidable batch. The dancers were huge
natives, possessing all the characteristics of the Tongans, while Leith,
Soma, and the one-eyed white man possessed more than ordinary strength.

"We must try to find the path," w