Very slowly Te Karearea drew his greenstone club from his belt and stretched his sinewy arm across the _tapu_ line. 'It is here,' he faltered, and almost as the lie dropped from his lips, leaped backwards with a wild yell of terror. For the lizard, suddenly and mysteriously endowed with life, sprang straight at him, its scaly body colliding with his hand. Te Karearea's club clattered to the ground, and his limbs, stiff with horror, held him rooted to the spot after that one backward impulse; while the lizard, its strange vitality extinguished as instantly as it had been kindled, tumbled back inertly upon the ridge. 'Liar!' shrieked the old man, shaking a warning finger in the face of the trembling chief. 'Fool! who thought to deceive the watchful TUMATAUENGA. Hear now, O stupid Hawk, the word which the gods have spoken to me.' Te Karearea was badly stricken as it was, but his eyes bulged as Kapua Mangu poured out the whole history of the greenstone club from the moment when Te Kaihuia had handed it to George. He had spoken with none but the chief since the arrival of the Hau-haus, and yet the minutest details were known to him, and he lashed Te Karearea with his tongue until, compelled by exhaustion, he stopped and staggered back against the tree. Now was Te Karearea's opportunity to escape, and he stooped swiftly to regain his club, keeping a wary eye upon the lizard, when suddenly he discerned around the body of the _tuatara_ a thin cord of blackened flax, indistinguishable in the gloom, unless closely looked for. Te Karearea drew his mat across his face so that he might indulge in a quiet grin. Presently Kapua Mangu, having got his second wind, advanced to complete the humiliation of the chief; but to his amazement, he detected a decided sneer on Te Karearea's thin lips. 'Beware, O stupid Hawk!' he yelled fiercely. 'Beware, lest I deliver you into the power of the tuatara.' For answer Te Karearea snatched up the cord, wrenched the end from the magician's hand, and slung the lizard from him with a derisive laugh. It fell just within the circle of heads. The chief was somewhat taken aback by this, which he certainly had not intended; but he preserved a bold front, poked out his tongue until it almost reached his chest, and rolled his eyes frightfully. But Kapua Mangu, confronted thus by such an uncivil infidel, set up a howl of horror. '_Aue! Aue!_' he wailed. 'Alas for the House of Te Turi.' Tears ran from his aged eyes, and his gaunt body shook with a terror which was quite unfeigned. '_Hi! Hi!_' exclaimed Te Karearea. 'What a fuss about nothing. I saw the cord with which you made him jump. He cannot hurt.' 'Nay, nay,' protested Kapua Mangu mournfully; 'you are a fool. It was for your sake I put the cord upon him. Had I not pulled him back when he jumped, he would have devoured you before my eyes.'