With every trick of gesture and impassioned tone of the born orator, he spoke to them until their fierce eyes were fastened upon his own, and the sullen apathy dropped from their stern faces. Then, pausing, he stepped back a pace, and, pointing to George and Terence, cried: 'But here, my friends, are two Pakehas whose hearts are even as those of the Maori. You have seen for yourselves. For if Hortoni and Mura had not been my friends, they would have left me to perish. Here they stand, and'--his voice swelled to a triumphant shout--'friends, they are ours!' George had listened with growing impatience to this splendid liar's talk, and at the final cunning assertion he took an angry step forward. But Te Karearea had anticipated this, and ere he could protest, turned about with a magnificent sweep of his arm and pointed to the open gate of the _pah_. Not another word was needed. He had won. Six buglers blew prolonged, discordant blasts upon as many great _teteres_,[2] the garrison yelled shrilly, and with a thunderous roar of triumph the impatient Maoris surged forward, breasting the slope, and charged furiously into the courtyard of the _pah_. [2] A huge wooden trumpet, about six feet long. CHAPTER XVII SAFE BIND, SAFE FIND When George Haughton managed to corner the busy chief and wrathfully demand of him how he had dared to claim him as a Pakeha-Maori, Te Karearea met his remonstrances quietly, professing himself astonished at the other's indignation. 'You said you might do worse,' he protested. 'I took that for consent. Besides, Hortoni, if you had not been my friend, you would not have stood between me and death. It is absurd to argue about so simple a matter.' And he stalked off, leaving George raging at his own incautiousness in having ventured to bandy ironical chaff with such a master of tricks. Terence laughed when George reported the conversation. 'We must remember,' said he, 'that, thanks to Te Karearea, the Hau-haus are inclined to be friendly; but if we contradict his highness too energetically, we shall find ourselves surrounded by malignant enemies, and probably be separated. I am for making the best of it.' And in this view George at length concurred. Events proved Terence right; for as time went on they did what they liked, and no one attempted to interfere with them. Nevertheless, an uneasy feeling that they were closely shadowed withheld them from any exploration of the surrounding country, and they wandered about, watching the girls at work on the kumara[1] fields across the river, inspecting the bags of the hunters, and keenly interesting themselves in the active preparations for war. [1] Potato.