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 brought the foolish old scientist and his daughters
into a place of terrors. Treachery had been apparent from the start. It
was only the confidence of the old antiquarian that had blinded our eyes
to a score of incidents that should have convinced us that the brute had
some ulterior motive in view. During that mad race through the night the
big sallow-faced giant appeared to us as a devil, a fiend that was
connected with some sort of horrible practices that had continued to
exist in this remote islet long after all trace of such things had been
lost in those islands that were visited by traders and missionaries.
Kaipi connected the dance with death, and the same conclusion had come
to us before we had heard the words of the frightened Fijian.
Holman slackened speed, and we dodged through a mass of boulders that we
judged were in a direct line with the crevice through which we had
witnessed the happenings in the cave.
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