In the midst of dangers--Bent stalked by Hauhaus--Old Jacob to the rescue--"Come on if you dare!"--The white man's new Maori name--Government forces attack and burn Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu--A new use for hand-grenades.
When Bent returned to the "Bird's-Beak" stockade he found himself in a position of extreme peril.
The Hauhaus, excited by the news of Kane's treachery and summary execution, were fiercely hostile in demeanour, and some of the young bloods came dancing about the white man, as he walked into the village, with menacing shouts, emphasised by savage thigh-slapping, _pukana_-ing, and grimacing with out-thrust tongue and rolling eyes, and similar demonstrations of derision and hatred.
A council of the people was held on the _marae_, and the killing of Kane was narrated in minutest and barbaric detail. Then several Hauhaus rose in turn and demanded the death of "Ringiringi," on the principle that all _pakehas_ were unreliable, and that it was a foolish policy to keep one in the camp who might sooner or later betray them. "Let us lead him outside the _pa_ and shoot him," proposed one truculent young warrior of the _Tekau-ma-rua_.
"_Kaati!_" cried Titokowaru, in his great roaring voice, as he rose with his spear-staff in his hand. "'Ringiringi' is my _pakeha_. I have _tapu_'d him, and I have told him that his life is safe. If you want to shoot him--well, you must kill me first!"
Then, turning to the white man, the war-chief took him by the hand, led him to his own house, and shut the people out. He told "Ringiringi" that in the present temper of the tribesmen he had better remain as much as he could in the _wharé_, and that, at any rate, he must not venture far from the door unless he, Titoko, were with him or in view.
Some days later, "Ringiringi," imagining from the more settled and pacific attitude of the Hauhaus that he no longer ran any risk in taking his walks abroad, wandered a short distance outside the stockade into the forest, and, seating himself on a fallen tree-trunk, filled his pipe for a quiet smoke. Suddenly he heard a cough. He looked about him, but saw no one.
A voice close above him replied, "It is I--Hakopa."
"Ringiringi" looked up quickly, and saw an old tattooed man named Hakopa (Jacob) te Matauawa, perched on the lowest branch of a _rata_-tree, with a double-barrelled gun in his hand. Hakopa was a tall, lean, straight old fellow, a veteran of the ancient fighting type. Bent had a thorough admiration for him as a man of singular courage, without the braggadocio of the young _toas_; Hakopa had for a long time exhibited a kindly leaning towards the white man, and had been a firm friend of his all through the troubled days in the _pa_.