Adventures in Many Lands

the big "billy" slung over their camp fire. "Now, if Dick would only

, Dick's big brother. "This place isn't healthy for us after what happened to-day." And he applied himself still more vigorously to his task of pu

uldn't dare to do any of us a mi

. The surveyors say he is stirring up his tribe to make trouble over the survey of the Ngotu block, and they had some hair-raising stories to tell me of his superstitious cruelty. He is really half-crazed with fana

Fred. "It was no end unlucky that he sh

on that tree of all trees in the bush," groaned Hugh. "The most tremendously

bits of sticks and stones lying at the bottom of it? Oh, it's just too beastly that for such a trifle we've got to skip out of

ing abruptness. "Suppose that Maori ruffian--" and a sudden fear sent

silent bush, but no answer came to them. And there was

upturned "billy," and the fern about the spri

face showing white beneath its tan. Stooping, he picked

must have stolen on Dick while he was filling his 'billy,' and carried him off. A thirteen-year-old bo

to harm Dick!" crie

yes eagerly searched the trampled grou

bush with Dick," he cried. "The trail is distinct." And he

landed them on a well-beaten Maori

nd that it brought them, at the end of a mile or so,

tingly, as they made for the gateway of the high wooden stock

possible to doubt that they were speaking truth when, in answer to Hugh's anxious questioning, they declared that no pakeha (white man) had been near the kainga, and that they had seen nothing of Horo

owledge of the Maori tongue, warned the natives that the pakeha law would punish them severely if

Dick might hear and be able to send them some guiding cry in answer. But the only result of their labours was that t

f sorts. But Hugh Jervois could not eat while racked by the horrible uncertainty of his brother's

en in that remote part of the country, Hugh Jervois had made his way to the Maori kainga. "It's my best chance of finding Dick," he had said to Fred. "Horo

ldren lounging about the cooking-place in the centre of the marae or open space around which the wharés (huts) were ranged. From the biggest of those wharés came the sound of men's voices, one at a time, in loud and eager talk. At onc

wharés-very cautiously, for he dreaded being seen by the group about the fire-until at last he stood behind the big wharé-runanga. With his ear glued to its wall he

oeka into the kainga at nightfall, and was now shut up in one of the wharés. But a fierce speech of Horoeka's presently told the painfully interested eavesdr

ed New Zealand Government. But, half-mad though he was, Horoeka's influence with his fellow-tribesmen was very great. The rude eloquence with which he painted the terrib

oeka's bloodthirsty demands, though these were rather dictated by his own crack-brained fancy than by Maori custom and tradition. Presently, indeed, it became evident t

eir men! Hugh must save his brother single-handed. But how was he to do it? For him, unarmed and unbacked by an authoritative s

alone," Hugh Jervois avowed. "But the wo

ut the cooking-place having retired into the wharés for the night. If he only knew which of those silent wh

Hugh groaned in agony of mind. "And any moment tho

ed sound arose. Poor little Dick, in sore straits, was strivin

n his left, and, in an instant, he had reached the hut and was gently tapping on the doo

, Dick," h

could read the measure of his young brother's

ely tied hand and foot to a post in the centre of the wharé. Again Hugh's pocket-knife came

Hugh imperatively. "You've got to play

pulled himself together and noiselessly

t into the marae to fetch his victim to the sacrifice, was just in time to see that victim disappearing round the corne

through which he had crept into the kainga an hour before. In a twinkling he had pushed Dick through and followed himself. And as they crouched un

s in a moment," cried

lit slope beneath the kainga was alive with Maoris-men, women, and children-shouting and rushing about in a state of tremendous exciteme

en, headed by Horoeka, streaming down the track leading to the lake. But after a little time they return

eir way down through the bush to the shores of the lake. There they were greeted with the welcome sound of oars, and, shooting

rveyor to Hugh Jervois after their denunciatory visit to the kainga in the early morning. "Horoeka, the

k last night in their wharé-runanga, that Horoeka only meant to give the pakeha boy a good fright becaus

pains and penalties awaiting them for their share in their tohunga's outrage on your brother. I'll tell you what it is, Jervois. Horoeka has to keep in hiding for his own sake, and

ick may be excused for thinking that your unobstructed survey has been dearly