If you hit him again
hit him with something that will crack his skull. He's a devil, Verslun,
and before we are much older we will find it out."
I laughed at his gloomy forebodings, and as Miss Barbara Herndon came on
deck at that moment he raced away and left me to my own meditations.
My thoughts were mixed. I had pleasant and unpleasant ones. If Leith
was the scoundrel that Holman suspected, the two girls were in danger,
and now as we neared the island where they would leave the yacht to
accompany their father, the clutch of fear was upon me. On _The Waif_ I
felt that I had some little power, but on land, more especially on the
lonely island toward which we were heading, that feeling of
protectorship which the sailorman has for his passengers would be lost.
If Leith knew the island, and it was evident that he had visited it
before, any villainy that he contemplated would be held in check till he
was ashore and in command of the expedition and I would be powerless.
I recognized that Holman's fears were without solid foundation. They
were transmitted through Barbara Herndon, but I also recognized that the
elder sister would hardly support the statements unless she had good
grounds for her anxiety.
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