Confusion seized George's brain as he snatched up the club and bounded into the bush in search of the assassin. As he broke through the fringing trees, he saw Terence, fists up, waiting for a burly Maori to rise from the ground. No sooner had the fellow found his feet than the Irishman hit him a terrific blow on the point of the chin, and down he went again into the fern and lay senseless. 'Oh, it was you he was after then,' cried George. 'He nearly hit me, all the same.' 'Naturally,' Terence observed drily. 'He was taking careful aim at you when I spotted him. He pulled off before I could reach him, but next minute I knocked him down. It is a good thing you saw him and ducked in time.' 'But I didn't see him,' George said rather wearily. 'The instant before that shot was fired, the greenstone club slipped through my belt to the ground, though I had secured it ten minutes earlier. As I stooped to raise it, the bullet passed over my head.' Terence's eyes grew round. 'What are we to make of this?' he said. 'This much. The fellow--who, I see, is one of the new contingent--was watching for me. When he saw me separated from the _mere_, he fired, supposing me vulnerable.' 'No.' Terence shook his head. 'He rested his gun in the fork of that sapling, and took careful aim at you as you stood. He could not possibly know that you would drop the club at that particular moment. I don't suppose he even knows you have it, as you say he is one of the new men.' 'But you don't mean to argue that the _mere_ slipped out of my belt in order to open a way of escape for me?' 'That is exactly what happened, at all events.' 'And you had nothing to do with the matter?' Terence shook his head, and George, passing his hand in a dazed way across his brow, said: 'I can't think of anything just now. Besides, I must go. I'll tell you where later on. Can you manage to take that fellow back to the camp?' 'Rather,' affirmed Terence; 'but you may as well tell him, that, if he doesn't go quietly, I will lodge one of his own bullets in him.' George gave the required hint to the Hau-hau, who scowled. Then he dashed out of the bush, almost upsetting Te Karearea, who was standing in the open. 'Can he be at the bottom of this latest outrage?' thought George. 'Confound him, I shall not be able to meet Paeroa. Well, it can't be helped.' No; but the missing of that interview meant more to George than he dreamed of at the time. 'Whither do you run so fast, Hortoni?' demanded the chief. 'Did you hear a shot just now?' returned George, eyeing him. 'I heard it. One of my fools was firing at a parrot, or, perhaps, a pig.' 'In the eyes of your "fool" I stood for one or the other,' said George, still staring at the chief. 'That shot was aimed at me; but, as the trigger was pulled, I stooped to pick up something I had dropped.' 'No one would dare,' Te Karearea cried stormily.