proposition. This trip is going to be a tough one, and I'm certain there
is some deviltry afoot."

I tried to laugh at the serious face upon the youngster, but the
conviction which he threw into his words choked my mirth. Whether it was
the little brush with the Kanaka or the gloomy forebodings of the boy I
couldn't tell, but I felt a trifle anxious after my first night aboard
_The Waif_.

"But there is nothing to be gained by running away if we do put in to a
port," I growled.

"How is that?" stammered Holman.

"Well, if Leith is an admirer of Edith Herndon, as you say," I argued,
"and if the captain is in league with Leith, the yacht wouldn't leave
till the girls came aboard. Besides, the Professor wouldn't go on
without them."

"I don't know about the Professor," grunted Holman. "That old doodlebug
only thinks of the silly specimens that he is going to collect down
here. If he had any love for his daughters he wouldn't have brought them
along."

"But you told me they insisted on coming."

"So they did!" he retorted savagely. "But they knew that the poor old
fool was in the hands of a scoundrel and they wouldn't let him go alone.
They think they can protect him from that devil, and it nearly makes me
cry to hear them say so."