The Taupo Field Force now had to foot it in what the men called a devil’s dance--_i.e._ marching and counter-marching all over the big inland plateau--for Te Kooti, having had sufficient fighting for the time being, simply refused to be brought to book. Ye gods! how we poor scouts were worked day and night, as on foot through the bush and across mountains, or on horseback, over the plains, we searched for the beggar high and low. Occasionally we would locate him, and, making for camp as hard as we could pelt, would report to the fretting O.C. we had him spotted. In a moment the column would start walking all day, or scrambling all night, till we surrounded the place, then rush it, only to find the still smouldering fires of his bivouac. Back would march the disgusted column, and would scarcely have time to eat before fresh scouts tore in with the report, “We have got Te Kooti located.” Away would go the swearing column, only to be sold again; and thus the dance went on. The fact of the matter was that the Hau Hau scouts were just as good as our own, and kept our camps under such strict observation that no party of men could leave them day or night without Te Kooti being at once warned of the movement, and so we could never depend on his remaining in the same place for more than a few hours at a stretch. Eventually he disappeared altogether from our ken, and we were utterly nonplussed as to what had become of him. This was indeed a very grave and serious responsibility, as no one could surmise from which direction some horrible story of murder and rapine might be sprung upon us. Every officer and man, from the O.C. downwards, did his best to pick up the lost spoor, and despatch-riders were sent to ride day and night to inform the distant settlers and commandants of frontier districts that Te Kooti had been lost, and to earnestly warn them to keep on the lookout for one of his lightning raids, while the hearts of us poor scouts grew dark, as, although we had done all that human beings could do, yet somehow it seemed to ourselves that we were to blame for his miraculous disappearance. At last it was discovered, after we had marched the boots off our feet, and our riding-breeches were more holey than a cold wet saddle demanded, that Te Kooti had retired into the King Country, where he again, in the most extraordinary way, raised another band of murderous ruffians.