We
shouldn't have left them."
The utterance of the conviction that had come to both of us brought a
silence, and we rushed across the boulder-strewn ground that we had
crossed earlier in the night. We felt certain that Leith knew of a surer
and safer path back to the camp, but it was useless for us to hunt for a
new trail at that moment. We would have to find our way down the nearly
perpendicular wall up which we had climbed after leaving the crevice
through which we had viewed the death dance, and, to me at least, the
recollections of that path brought feelings that were by no means
pleasant. But Leith was making toward the camp, and the horrible
thoughts aroused by the spectacle which we had witnessed in the early
night muzzled the thrills which the dangers of the climb sent through
our bodies. The dance had terrified the Fijian by arousing thoughts of
the deeds that would happen in its wake, and Kaipi's terror became a
gauge for us to measure its dread significance.
We reached the cliffs and ran up and down the ledge in a vain search for
the spot where we had clawed our way to the top.
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