The newcomer was Kaipi!
"He kill Toni!" he cried. "Toni all same brother to me. Toni work with
me long time Suva."
Toni, the pupil of the Maori, who had instructed him on Levuka wharf as
to the way out of Black Fernando's hell, had been avenged at last.
It was a happy reunion we held upon the edge of the pit. Edith and
Barbara bound up the wounds of the two faithful natives, and the
muscular Raretongan was so touched with their tender ministrations that
he foraged in his tattered sulu, and with tears of gratitude in his big
brown eyes he handed back to Barbara the emerald ring with which she had
caused him to desert from Leith's service.
"Me want no pay from you!" he cried. "Me work for you all same
nothing!"
We learned that the one-eyed white man and the last of the Wizards of
the Centipede had been dispatched by Maru and Kaipi, and we also
received the news that the four carriers had bolted back to the yacht.
The latter piece of information somewhat dampened our spirits. We felt
that Leith and Newmarch were friends, and we wondered what the silent,
thin-faced captain would do when he heard the story of Black Fernando's
discomfiture.
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