"Nothing doing," muttered Holman. "I counted right, didn't I?"
"I think so," I answered huskily.
"Sixty paces exactly, and here's the wall alongside us."
My fingers groped along the moist rock. I felt stunned. Now that the test had been made it seemed insanity to connect a chant that I heard at Levuka with a waterfall in a cavern on the Isle of Tears. But why had Toni been killed? Why had Leith exhibited such curiosity about the song when he heard me relating the incident to the two sisters on board the yacht?
My fingers came to a crevice in the wall as the question presented a bold front to the doubt that had gripped me. The fissure was some four feet wide, and my exclamation made Holman put a question.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," I answered. Wrecked hopes had made me cautious. Still I felt certain that I had remembered those words for some purpose. I recalled how they had puzzled me on that hot day, and how I had questioned Holman concerning "Pilgrim's Progress" when he had roused me from my sleep.
"Well, if there's nothing here I'm going back to get a drink," said Holman.
"Hold on!" I stammered, as I uncoiled the piece of spare rope from my shoulders; "I want you a minute. There's a split in this rock, and I'm going to explore it. Take the end of this rope and hang on."
"Hadn't I better go with you?" he asked.