Some days later, "Ringiringi," imagining from the more settled and pacific attitude of the Hauhaus that he no longer ran any risk in taking his walks abroad, wandered a short distance outside the stockade into the forest, and, seating himself on a fallen tree-trunk, filled his pipe for a quiet smoke. Suddenly he heard a cough. He looked about him, but saw no one. "Who's there?" he called out. A voice close above him replied, "It is I--Hakopa." "Ringiringi" looked up quickly, and saw an old tattooed man named Hakopa (Jacob) te Matauawa, perched on the lowest branch of a _rata_-tree, with a double-barrelled gun in his hand. Hakopa was a tall, lean, straight old fellow, a veteran of the ancient fighting type. Bent had a thorough admiration for him as a man of singular courage, without the braggadocio of the young _toas_; Hakopa had for a long time exhibited a kindly leaning towards the white man, and had been a firm friend of his all through the troubled days in the _pa_. "Quick, quick!" he said, in a low, cautious voice. "Hide yourself, Ringi! When you walked out of the _pa_ I heard two men who were watching you say that they would follow you up and kill you as they had killed Kingi. They went to their _wharés_ for their weapons, and I followed you quickly to warn you. I saw you standing there, and climbed on this branch to see what those men are doing. _E tama!_ Conceal yourself! They are coming." The white man hastily selected a hiding-place. He lay down behind a big log near by, a fallen _pukatea_-tree; the log and the creepers and ferns that grew about it quite concealed him from the view of any one approaching from the _pa_. Hardly had he hidden himself than two villainous-visaged young Hauhaus walked quickly along the track from the _pa_ gateway. Both swung tomahawks as they came, and one carried at his girdle a revolver--trophy taken from some slain white officer. Seeing Hakopa descending from his tree-perch, they stopped and asked: "Where is the _pakeha_? Did you see him pass?" "Why do you ask?" said the old man. "We have come to kill him," replied one of the men. "Where is he?" Hakopa instantly put his cocked _tupara_ to his shoulder and levelled it at the foremost of the Hauhaus, the man with the revolver. "_Haere atu!_" he said sharply. "Go! Leave this spot at once, or I will shoot you. 'Ringiringi' is my friend." The old fellow's determined air quite overawed the _pakeha_-hunters, and they sulkily and silently returned to the _pa_. Jacob watched them off, and when the white man had risen from his hiding-place he escorted him back to the _pa_, walking in front of him with his gun cocked, on the alert for any attack on his protégé. He took "Ringiringi" to his house, and then reported the affair to Titokowaru.