One more case. The general killing was over when eight prisoners were brought in, and the Government representatives, who by that time were on the spot, thought they should receive a trial. This was equivalent to releasing them, as it is impossible to get a witness to bear evidence after he has been murdered. Anyhow these eight beauties were confined in a hut with a trooper on guard over them. Now it chanced that among the troopers was a man named Hunt, whose wife and family had been butchered by the gang these ruffians belonged to. He was a quiet, methodical man who said nothing, but awaited his opportunity; and it came. One day he was detailed as prison guard, which he mounted, having previously borrowed a second revolver from his mate. Hunt quietly took over the duty, entered the hut, made fast the door, drew his brace of revolvers and deliberately shot every one of the bounders, a plan so well conceived and carried out as to be worthy of the approval of both white men and Maoris. CHAPTER IV BACK TO THE WEST COAST Directly after the fall of Ngatapa, Colonel Whitmore returned to Wanganui, taking us with him, so as to play a return match against our old opponent, Titokowaru, and by the end of the month we were again on the bank of the Kai-iwi River, where Colonel Lyon had built a strong redoubt, and constructed a bridge of sorts. The little Colonel was not a man to waste time, so decided to advance the following day by the track that ran inland. Although close to the camp this road passed through a very deep and densely bushed gorge, which, if held by an enemy, would cost a lot of lives to force. The Colonel knew all about this, so during the evening he despatched Kepa with his Wanganuis to make a detour through the bush and occupy the other end, while shortly afterwards he sent me with four scouts to thoroughly examine the gorge itself, for which purpose he sent with us a white settler, who, owning the land there, of course knew that part of the country well. Taking Pierre, George, Tim and a man named M’Kenzie with me, I left camp at dark, and worked quietly along one side of the ravine as far as I could get without running foul of Kepa’s scouts; then I crossed it, and worked down the other side, but could neither see nor hear anything. I was, however, far from being satisfied, as the queer instinct a highly trained scout acquires warned me I was in the vicinity of great danger; moreover George, whom I had detached for a time to watch the greatest point of danger, told me, when he joined up, he fancied he had heard the sound of metal striking stone. I therefore determined to make a further examination.