do the same if I strike the
spoor of the big devil."

It was about two o'clock, as nearly as we could judge, when we
separated. We agreed to keep as close as possible to the rocky wall so
that a messenger from one would have less difficulty in locating the
other, and Maru and I found, before we had gone a hundred yards, that
the nearer we could get to the cliff the quicker we could get along. The
lianas found it difficult to get a grip upon the rocks, and we could
worm our way without much trouble.

We had travelled about three quarters of a mile when the native dropped
upon his knees and I immediately followed his example. The ordinary
Polynesian is not to be compared with the Australian black fellow or the
American Indian in his knowledge of the forest, but Maru was an
exception. His sight and hearing were abnormally keen, and he examined
the grass carefully.

"One man go by here pretty short time ago," he whispered.

"Native?" I asked.

"No, him wear shoes."

The Raretongan crawled forward on his knees, his face close to the
grass. The tracks upon the soft grass showed that the person was moving
in the direction we were going, and for about twenty yards we followed
cautiously. Leith, the one-eyed white man, and the Professor were the
only three men on the Isle of Tears, outside Holman and myself, who
would be wearing shoes. It was hard to think that the Professor or Leith
would be alone at that moment, so I concluded, as we crawled along in
the shadow of the cliff, that the tracks were made by One Eye.

Maru suddenly sprang to his feet and stood listening. I listened too.
Into the awful silence came a tremendous rumbling that increased each
second till I pictured it as a cancer of noise growing with appalling
rapidity within the encompassing stillness.

"What is it?" I gasped. "Why it's----"

I understood at that moment, and I sprang toward the jungle, but the
big hand of the Raretongan gripped my shoulder and dragged me close to
the cliff beneath an overhanging ledge.

"Stay here!" he yelled, raising his voice above the tumult that seemed
to be coming out of the heavens. "Keep close much!"

The noise was deafening. The black cliff seemed to rock behind us, and
as Maru pulled me down on my knees five hundred tons of rock shot from
the heights and flattened ten square yards of the packed shrubs
immediately in front of us!

"Now!" screamed Maru, as the dust swept in under the ledge and nearly
choked us