"War to the Knife;" or, Tangata Maori by Rolf Boldrewood (e novels to read TXT) 📗

"Yes, and a most important one, too. That's why I pushed on at such a rate. If we had been nearer home, I should have returned; but the retreat would have been more dangerous than an advance."

"How can that be?"

[Pg 128]

"That woman ran twenty miles to warn me that Taratoa was out with a taua—a war expedition. She said the natives believed that the war was all but declared. Now, as Warwick will tell you, this Taratoa is one of the most turbulent and bloodthirsty chiefs of his ruthless tribe; and that is saying a good deal. He might—I don't say that he would, but it is quite possible—think it a fine chance of increasing his mana by killing the first pakeha, which would mean the mataika in the war—a most coveted distinction."

"What a ruffian! But 'dans la guerre c'est la guerre.' Pardon me for quoting the French proverb."

"Mais, monsieur, je le comprend parfaitement," she returned for answer, with a mock obeisance. "You must remember that there are here French as well as English colonists. And besides, I spent a year at Akaroa long ago, which, as all the world knows—the New Zealand world, I mean—was at one time a French settlement."

Massinger bowed with all the grace he could muster, and apologized for thinking it impossible that a New Zealand girl was conversant with French. "You remind me," he said, "of the Admiral in 'Singleton Fontenoy,' a naval novel of a later day than good old Captain Marryat. He asks one of the middies, when before Acre, if he spoke Turkish.

"'No, sir. Oh no! what made you think so?'"

"'Well, you youngsters seem to have learned everything nowadays. I thought you might know that among other languages.'"

She laughed at this with the unreserved merriment which characterized her when not serious or mournful, [Pg 129] which, indeed, was the ordinary expression of her features when in repose.

"You had better ask Warwick if he understands Turkish. He knows most things. We must consult with him as to what is best to be done, when we camp. But I think we had better push on to the Lakes, where we shall be in the territory of Te Heu Heu. He will protect us."

So they fared on. Through flax swamps, where the sodden soil was often midleg deep; anon through rushing ice-cold streams, where there was difficulty in keeping footing, even when in no great depth of water; up the rugged sides of mountains, where the narrow path lay between the century-old pines, knee-high in bracken, and was occasionally obstructed by the fallen mass of some patriarch of the forest, which forbade direct progress.

Meanwhile, this wood-nymph and her attendants, the latter of whom carried burdens of no mean weight, tripped onward swiftly, as if the ordinary difficulties of such a journey were hardly worthy of notice. Erena sped along like a votary of the huntress Diana. Few obstacles made any noticeable difference to her pace, as she glided, at the head of the party, with serene self-confidence—a marvel of grace, swiftness, and endurance. Scarcely less was he stricken with admiration at the courage and activity of the humbler members of the party, particularly the women. They carried their burdens over the difficulties of the road with unflinching perseverance, following in Indian file the footsteps of Warwick, who occasionally made a detour, when he thought it advantageous.

"What astonishing infantry a race like this would [Pg 130] furnish!" thought Massinger. "Amid these forests, reasonably drilled and armed, in a guerilla war they could stand against the best troops in the world! Sheltered by these ancient woods, the breast-high bracken, these thickets impervious to all men but themselves, what chance would disciplined troops have against them? I hope to Heaven that we may never have to war with them � l'outrance. A succession of skirmishes would not matter so much, but a prolonged war would be one of the most expensive, and in some respects disastrous, on record."

He was recalled from these reflections by the voice of the guide, who had fallen back, and stood at some short distance, awaiting an opportunity to speak.

"I have halted the party," he said, "for we have no great distance to go, and may travel in a leisurely manner. We shall soon have our first sight of Taupo and commence to open out the hot lake country, with all the wonders of which you have heard."

"I am not sorry," said Massinger; "for though nothing could be more to my taste than our present form of journeying, yet I must confess to feeling impatient to behold these marvels that are in every one's mouth. I hope I shall not be disappointed."

"If so, you will be the first to confess it," said Warwick. "I have seen them many times, but they always fill me with fresh wonder and admiration. Nothing, in some respects, is equal to them in the world, I believe. 'See Rotomahana and die,' may well be said."

"When I do see it, it will be well described. [Pg 131] Between Erena and yourself, I shall lose no part of legend or tradition."

"She is far better at the legendary business than I am," said Warwick. "She has such a wonderful memory, and knows all the old tales and waiatas by heart. I tell her she should write a pukapuka about the place and the people. One is just as strange as the other."

"I think I must," said the subject of their conversation, who had now approached, after concluding a colloquy with the women of the expedition. "It seems hard that so many of these legends should be lost. When I was a child, they used to be sung and repeated at every camp fire. Now they are on the way to be forgotten. My father was always promising to make a collection of them, but they strayed into 'By-and-by Street, which leads to the House of Never.'"

Massinger smiled. "I know that street myself, I must confess; but while I live in your country it shall be tapu. The land of Maui is the place, and this year of grace the appointed time, for my work and adventure."

"And if there should be war?" said she, regarding him with a searching look, not wholly, as he thought, without a shade of doubt.

"All the more reason," he replied. "There is such a scarcity of honest fighting nowadays, that it will be a treat to face the real thing in one's own person."

For one instant an answering smile lit up her face as she gazed at Massinger, who unconsciously drew himself up and raised his head, as though fronting an advancing column. She sighed, as she came [Pg 132] forward, and lightly touching his shoulder, looked wistfully into his face. "You love war; it is in your blood. So do my people; it is the breath of their nostrils. My father, too, is a war-chief of the Ngapuhi, and fought with them in the old wars. But if you had ever seen Maoris in or after a battle, you would think you were in a land of demons, not men."

"A man can only die once. Your tribe, too, is on our side, is it not? I can't think the hostile natives will stand long before regular troops."

"Look at that bush," she said, pointing to a dense thicket of Koreao, where all sorts of horizontal climbers and clingers seemed struggling for the mastery, and into which the van of the little cort�ge had cast themselves, and gliding through, apparently without effort, had in part disappeared. "How do you think that a company of a regiment would advance or retreat, with Ngarara" (that amiable savage had just passed from view) "and a few hundreds of his tribe firing at you from behind it?"

"To tell truth, I think Ngarara would rather like it now, if he could get the chance; but I am a fair snapshot, and would try for first pull. However, we won't anticipate disagreeables. How far is Rotomahana? I am dying to see the terraces."

"You pakehas are always gay," she said. "Perhaps it is better to enjoy while we may. I wish I could do so. But our Tohunga has been prophesying, and his words have cast a shadow over my mind, which I vainly try to resist."

"But surely your education has taught you to despise superstitious fears?"

[Pg 133]

"My reason does so; but the senses revolt, strange as it may seem. I cannot get away from a dread of impending evil. My father, who has Highland blood in his veins, calls it the 'second sight.'"

"I have heard of it; and what did the seer foretell? Is he known to be a true prophet?" queried her companion.

"Wonderful as it may appear, he has been seldom wrong. This time he predicts war—bloody and doubtful. Our tribe, though sometimes defeated, is to be victorious. He counsels them to keep a straight path."

The next day's journey was over a different route. The forest, with its over-arching tree-tops and deep cool glades, lay behind them. They had entered upon a region of barren and desolate sand wastes, of which the neutral-tinted surface was varied by scarped over-hanging bluffs. In these, a red-ochreous conglomerate gave a weird and fantastic appearance to the landscape.

Halting towards evening, where the winding road by which they had been ascending appeared to decline towards a wide valley, Erena silently directed Massinger's attention to the far-stretching and varied view, adding, "You are about to descend into the land of wonders, and the kingdom of mysterious sights and sounds, with heaven above. As to below, what shall I say?"

He smiled as he answered, "It is only to look around, to convince one's self that we are on the border of a dread and unreal region. Look at that volcanic cone, splashed with shades of red, emitting steam from every point of its scarred sides and summit. [Pg 134] And those snow-capped mountains, grand and awful in their loneliness, gazing, as one would dream over a ruined world, themselves awaiting only the final conflagration."

"Very awful, terrible—infernal even, it seems to me sometimes," said Erena. "I cannot help wondering how long it will be before these imprisoned fires burst through, and, in rending their way to upper air, destroy the heedless people who live so cheerfully on a mere crust. But we must get down into this valley of Waiotapu, where we camp for the night. There will be such a sight-seeing tomorrow in store for us, that we shall hardly be able to move in the evening. Blue lakes and green lakes will be the least of the marvels. When I was a child, I used to think there would be talking fish in them, like those of the 'Arabian Nights,' which stood on their tails in the frying-pan."

"What a dear old book that is!" exclaimed he; "how I used to delight in it as a boy! Now I think of it, this region has a good deal of the Sindbad the Sailor business about it. I shouldn't wonder if we came to a loadstone mountain, which would draw all our steel and iron articles into it, like the nails in Sindbad's ship! It would be lovely to see everything take flight through the air, from the axes and revolvers to the old mare's shoes."

The girl smiled at this extravagance, but relapsed into her expression of habitual seriousness as she answered, "Who knows but that we may want the revolvers? At any moment war may break out. We are like the Rotorua natives, I am afraid, walking on thin crust."

"I have skated on thin ice before now," he said, [Pg 135] "but water and fire are different things. It seems uncanny to be on land where your walking-stick smokes if you poke it more than an inch into the soil. So this is the famous and sacred valley!"

"Here we are," said Warwick, who now joined them, "and I am not sorry. This sandy road takes it out of one ever so much more than the forest country. Our autumn sun, too, is fairly hot at midday. The Wahines felt it, carrying their loads up some of the hills."

"They seem to me to be given the heaviest packs," said Massinger, rather indignantly. "Why doesn't that hulking fellow Ngarara carry part of one at any rate?"

"Well, you see, he is a chief and has 'no back'—that is to say, he is absolved from bearing burdens. His person is sacred to that extent. I don't like him personally, but he is within his rights."

"I should like to kick him," said the Englishman; "he wants some of the nonsense taken out of him."

"I shouldn't advise any hasty act," said Warwick, looking grave. "He is a person of some consequence, and you would bring the whole tribe down upon us, as they would consider themselves insulted in his person; particularly now, as no one knows what may happen within a week or two. As for the women, poor things, they are used to it. They do much of the work of the tribe, and don't object to fighting on occasion."

"It is too true," said Erena. "I am always ashamed to see