'I am sure you would, dear old fellow!' said George affectionately; 'but we will stick together as long as possible. Only, if the chief does not parole you, then----' He broke off short, staring up at Te Karearea, who had, as usual, approached unobserved. 'It looks as if the rascal possesses the power to render himself invisible at will,' said George disgustedly, when the chief had withdrawn after informing them that the march was about to be resumed. 'We shall have to go warily, Terence; for there is no knowing how much he may have heard.' 'Much good may it do him,' remarked Terence airily. 'And if it comes to knocking on the head----' He bent his arm. The great biceps contracted, bulging out the red sleeve. Let that enormous mass of muscle be extended with the weight of the body behind it, and the fist in front of it would surely trouble somebody's weak nerves. George smiled. 'Oh, I know what you can do; but a couple of hundred to one is long odds. Meantime, you must not run the risk of offending him; for, remember, he is utterly unscrupulous. In some mysterious way I appear to be necessary to him; but were it otherwise, he would kill me without the slightest compunction. Of that I feel sure. Come! it is time we joined him.' Four days later, towards sunset, they debouched from the forest through which for the last sixty hours they had toiled wearily along a narrow, difficult track. It had been a terrible journey for the Maoris, but far more so for the white men, and all alike rejoiced when at last the dreadful bush lay behind them, and they beheld the river which alone divided them from the _pah_ which was their goal. As was usual with the Maori fortresses, the position was one of immense strength. The island plain, at the back of which rose a considerable hill, was a swampy area overgrown with flax, and extended for nearly a mile on every side of the eminence but one, being itself enclosed by a forked ravine, at the bottom of which the river roared and swirled among giant boulders. No doubt, at some far-off day this roughly level plain had itself been covered with forest; but dead and gone generations of Maoris had cleared away the offending wood, so that no one could now approach the _pah_ unobserved. The single side of the hill unflanked by the plain was simply a vast, precipitous rock-face, having for its _vis-à-vis_ the equally precipitous opposing wall of the ravine, into whose depths it dropped a sheer two hundred feet, the twin cliffs forming a cañon through which the river raced on its way to unite again with the main stream. The place was, indeed, almost inaccessible when once the only approach from the forest was barred. This was merely a rough bridge across the river on the side furthest from the hill, and when the tree-trunks forming this were withdrawn, a handful of men could easily hold the island against an army.