Her saintship Nemesis on this occasion made use of a rod she must have kept a long time in pickle for the back of that ancient sinner and believer in dreams, Renata Kawepo, the chief of the Napier tribe, and she served it out to him in this fashion. Old Renata, who in no ways lacked pluck, at the last moment charged with about sixty of his men, but in the pursuit through the bush got separated from them. While alone he fell across a Hau Hau man and woman, the latter’s husband having just been killed, and these two at once attacked him. It would have gone very hard with the poor old chap had not a trooper and an Arawa come to the rescue, who equalised matters by promptly killing the man, and then stood by and, acting as referees, watched a veritable hand-to-hand fight, no lethal weapons being allowed, between the infuriated Suffragette and Renata. Now I regret to state it is impossible for me to report that the fight was fought in strict accordance with the Queensberry rules, or any other well-known code of laws drawn up for the guidance of pugilistic encounters, as after scrapping two rounds, during which both of them should have been frequently disqualified for foul fighting, in the third and last the vixen got the dog down, mauled him severely, tore the greenstone ornament out of his ear, taking the greater part of that organ with it, gouged out one of his eyes, which she promptly swallowed, and would have finished him off had not the Arawa, suddenly remembering that the Napier tribe would most probably demand utu from him for looking on at their chief being outed, put an end to the shindy by taking the Amazon prisoner. The general verdict of the field force on this encounter was serve him right, and much more sympathy went to the woman than to Renata, as everyone was fed up with the pranks of the Napier tribe and bitterly blamed Renata for giving Te Kooti the chance of again escaping. The Napier men, however, were furious, and, being high-toned Christians, demanded the woman should be given over to them so as to be tortured and killed. This modest request the Colonel sternly refused, and promptly ordered all the women prisoners to be brought up to his own camp for safety. At the same time he solemnly warned the Napier scallywags that if they dared to play any monkey tricks he would let loose us mounted men to twist their tails, whereupon the disgusted Napier tribes said they would go home, and were promptly told to go to Hades, and they went not as far as they were recommended to go but to Napier, and this was only to be expected, for you see the beggars always hung back when ordered to march an unfrequented route or do anything of an arduous nature. CHAPTER VIII HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH TE KOOTI