moon-whitened ocean I started nervously at the thought which had sprung
suddenly into my brain. It was an insane thought, and I tried to laugh
it away. Edith Herndon was as far above me as the moon was above the
waves that were silvered by her beams. I pictured myself lying like a
beachcomber upon the pile of pearl shell when the strange chant of the
Maori and the dead Toni concerning "the way to heaven out of Black
Fernando's hell" had come to my ears, and I blessed the new influence
which had come into my life.

"My way to heaven lies in this direction," I soliloquized, and the
quivering yacht went bounding on as I allowed wild dreams to race
unchecked through my brain.


[Illustration]


CHAPTER VI

THE ISLE OF TEARS

A sleepy Samoan in the main cross-trees screamed a message to the deck
while the pink flush of the tropical dawn was still in the sky, and _The
Waif_ plunged through the water toward the island. One after the other
the members of the expedition came on deck. Leith stumbled up when
Newmarch shouted down the information, and the big brute watched the
tiny spot that came gradually nearer; the Professor danced up like an
adventurous boy, and he gurgled ecstatically as he peeped over the rail;
while the two girls came up arm in arm and looked in silence across the
dawn-reddened waters. Holman's gaze travelled from the island to Leith