"Pull off your coat," he whispered, "and leave it in the rushes. Take mine, or he will know you."
Edwin eagerly complied.
"Sleep deep; lie on your face!" whispered Whero, covering him over with the rushes he had brought. Then, before Edwin had the least idea of what he was purposing, Whero pushed out his canoe into the middle of the river, and paddled quickly to a handy landing-place a little farther on. He ran up the bank shouting to Lawford, "If you want a boat to go down river to meet a coaster, I'll row you in my canoe. But you will have to pay me."
"You would not work without that if you are a Maori, I know," retorted the other, taking out a well-worn purse.
"Come along," shouted Whero; "that's a' right." The unsuspecting Lawford took his seat in the canoe, and gave Edwin an unwary kick.
"Who have you got here?" he asked.
"A chum asleep," answered Whero, indifferently, as he stroked his kaka.
Edwin was feeling anything but indifferent. He knew not how to lie still. "If we are not dead unlucky," he thought, "we shall get all back—Nga-Hépé's bag, and father's belt too. We must mind we do not betray ourselves. If we can manage to go on board the same steamer, when we are right out to sea I'll tell the captain all; and we will give Lawford in charge as he lands." Such was Edwin's plan; but he could not be sure that Whero's was the same. He dare not exchange a look or sign; "for," he said to himself, "if Lawford catches sight of me, it is all over."
They passed another little steamer going up the river, with its coal-barge in tow.
Edwin felt as if Audrey's sedate face would be looking down upon him from its deck, but he was wrong.