A gleam of suspicion came into the chief's eyes at this ready concession. 'For how long, Hortoni? A week? A moon? What?' 'I promise; that is enough,' returned George carelessly. 'When I am tired of liberty I will tell you.' Te Karearea's eyes burned into his own, but he met their stare unflinchingly, and presently the chief said: 'And you, O Mura--whom I had not forgotten--do you also give your word?' 'Oh yes,' replied Terence, when George had interpreted. Once again Te Karearea stared at them as if he would read their inmost thoughts. Then with a curt 'It is good!' he stalked away, and they heard his voice ringing out as he issued orders with regard to the twice-interrupted march. They stood on one side, watching the eager Maoris, fine men for the most part, and handsome too, despite the intricate patterns which scored their faces--records, each of them, of some deed of derring-do. For the Maori, not content with simple tattooing, cut and carved his history upon brow and breast and cheek and chin, the absence of such scars indicating either extreme youth, or a lack of courage very rare among the men of their race. 'He is beckoning to us. Come along,' said Terence. 'You first, please, by reason of your exalted position.' Te Karearea, who had resumed his mat and kilt, cordially greeted them as they fell in on either side of him, and amid inexpressible uproar the march to the _pah_ began. But presently the men settled down, and, as they took the road across the island to the hill, broke into a roaring chorus of the days when all the land was their birthright, and again, of the time to come when the Pakeha should be swept into the sea, and _Ao-Tea-Roa_,[1] the Land of the Long-lingering Day, return to the Children of Maui once more. [1] New Zealand was thus poetically named by the early Maori settlers there because of the twilight, to which they had been unaccustomed in 'Hawaiki.' George, toiling up the steep and difficult ascent, and wondering how, when their parole was withdrawn, they should ever escape from such a stronghold as that upon the hill-top, was startled out of his reverie by the sound of a harsh, dry sob. He glanced round, to find Te Karearea, with bowed head and anguished face, stumbling almost blindly along the rough track. '_Aue! Aue!_' wailed the chief, his low, tense tones scarcely reaching beyond the ear of him for whom they were intended. '_Aue!_ Oh, that the _mere_ of TUMATAUENGA might be mine but for one short hour, that the god might see it in the hand of the last of the House of Te Turi! Oh, that I might bear it into the _pah_, and hold it while I pray to the gods and to my ancestors. Only for one little hour. _Aue! Aue!_' He made no direct appeal, but his restless brown eyes dwelt wistfully on George, who felt distinctly uncomfortable.