Not two yards behind her an islander was squirming over the spray-wet stone. Following him was another. On the opposite side of the pool the other Marquesans were crouched behind boulders.
Unaware of her danger, Tahaiupehii stood on the edge of the rock, but even as I looked, her straight body flashed through the air, plunging into the foam.
As she vanished beneath the water one of the islanders crawled to the rim of the pool. An instant later her head appeared and she must have seen him, for a cry rang above the dull boom of the waterfall.
The Marquesan slipped into the pool…
I experienced a moment of indecision; my brain strove to function quickly. The two figures were almost side by side in the current. Nineteen feet — a straight drop, and I did not know the depth. Yet…
I gripped the blade between my teeth; took a deep breath. After that I was conscious of shooting through space… down… into what seemed a depthless pit. I struck the pool — went under with a force that lashed my flesh and expelled the air from my lungs.
In the battle against the torrent I almost lost the knife, but in some manner I managed to retain it. Through a whirling, opaque mass I came up, every inch of my body stinging.
Not more than a rod away I saw the two figures. I caught the gleam of grappling arms — saw a face that in the night was pale like blue moonlight, as exquisitely beautiful as any I have ever seen..
In a moment I reached them, closing about the shining dark neck. With the other hand I swung the knife. Together we sank. In that gray chaos we struggled, I slashing with the deadly blade.
Of a sudden it was conveyed to my brain, along with a strangling sensation, that my hand was holding nothing — that the knife-thrusts had told. I buoyed myself upward and attained the surface — alone. I doubt if the native ever came up.
It must have been a rock that sent me out. At any rate the pain was sharp — in the back of the skull. Things went dim. I realized that a hand gripped my hair — then I knew… nothing.
III
Tue sleep that followed was not calm — nor can I hardly call it sleep, for during the whole period I had a peculiar awareness of things, of movement and a sound like unleashed thunder. And with the advent of full consciousness I was not, as I expected, in the water, although it was damp and I could feel a cool spray upon my body.
I sat upright on cold stone, my head aching dreadfully. Something close at hand was roaring and in a hazy way I realized that the noise was responsible for the spray; but as my vision cleared I saw only dimness broken on one side by a glimmering sheet that was a shade lighter than the surrounding gloom.
Gradually I comprehended. I was under the waterfall, in a dark recess in the rocks; the shifting curtain was nothing less than the cascading water.
Then I was startled by a voice almost at my elbow, speaking in Marquesan — "Menike, you are awake — at last?"
I knew her instantly, though she was little more than a blot in the dimness. Tahaiupehii — that exquisite young creature whose face I had seen momentarily as I fought the islander.
"I am glad you have come back, Menike," she said, creeping closer to me and slipping her small spray-wet hand in mine. Her nearness made me conscious of a pleasant odor — that of red jasmine. "Your head hit a rock — and I was afraid…"
"You saved me, Tahaiupehii?" I asked.
"I saw you as you dived from above — knew that you had done it to save me from Habuhamo's men. After you were hurt I swam with you to this cave under the waterfall."
I looked about me. A grim, loathsome place. I imagined there were creeping things upon the rock floor. But it was sanctuary.
"You were very brave," I commended, wondering how I was going to acquaint her with the truth.
My vision was becoming better regulated now, and with the aid of the pale light that filtered through the liquid curtain I could see her tawny face. Daughter of the Pigeon — less than seventeen, I knew, a symphony of the world's sorrow, a living symbol of that tragic isle to which she belonged.
"How did you happen here, Menike?" she questioned. "White men rarely come to Taoha any more…"
So I told her then — told her of my swim to the island and the discovery of Red Moon in the sea-chest in the Cave of the Laughing Lepers; told her of the death of her boy-lover near the paepae of Mahuma, and the finding of her father's body in the bamboo room.
Man is ever crude in the presence of bereavement, and my words must have been dagger-thrusts. She wept… of course. Father and lover in a night. And as she sat there, drenched with spray, clad only in the dripping pareu, a tragically lovely figure, she recalled to me a field of lilies that I had once seen… just before the dawn, when the dew was upon their chaste petals.
"Be calm, O Tahaiupehii." I enjoined gently, endeavoring to invest my sympathy in the words. "You are still in danger. Tell me, is anyone else aware of this cave?"
"I do not know, Menike."
"If it is unknown to Habuhamo's men they will think us drowned — but if it is known — they will come after us — or wait…"
Her small hand was still in mine and I felt her shudder.
"Ah, I cannot stay here — in this darkness — thinking of Red Moon and my father! We must dive under the waterfall and swim for the sea!"
I doubted the wisdom of such action and expressed my opinion, to which she replied: "We cannot discover if Habuhamo's men are waiting by remaining here — and if they know of the cave and come after us — then the chances for escape will be less."
I thought of Cleaves and the men — probably searching the island for me. and said, "My friends are somewhere on Taoha — and if we can make the sea — in the event Habuhamo's men are waiting—"
"Only for your safety do I care," she broke in. "You exposed yourself to danger for me, but I— All that I ever cared for is gone. Let another page of the history of this doomed island be written — in my blood — for rather than submit to Habuhamo I would kill ray-self."
I felt a bit hysterical; I wanted to laugh. Such odds. Three islanders, probably searching the island for me, girl and me. It might have been rare sport had she not been there, but her presence gave the situation a horrid twist.
"Come, Menike," I heard her say. "Let us go. This place stifles me—"
It burned me to think of Habuhamo alive. I wished that I had used the knife upon his corrupt body…
"Very well, Tahaiupehii," I agreed after a moment; "swim under water as far as you can — and stay ahead of me. I'll attend to Habuhamo's men."
I saw her smile — a fixed, lifeless expression…
My heart went cold within me as we swung down from the dripping rocks of the cavern. As the deluge showered her slim body I caught a glimpse of her face, paler than the whitest moons.
That plunge was a horror to me. Bruised and breathless, my vision flecked with fire, I sank… down… into a reeling, watery world. My feet touched bottom before I was able to begin the fight upward, and when at last I gained the surface I dashed the spray from my eyes.
Tahaiupehii was a yard or more ahead of me, arms agleam in the moonlight. They were there, the three islanders, sleek and sinister, slipping down from the bank of granite basin. There was a fourth, too, a fat, sprawling form high on the rocks.