That evening, as he and Mrs. Chalmers sat at their door, a troop of natives came to them. The dark men carried strange white things in their arms. When they came near they set them down in front of the house. They were skulls! Kirikeu spoke for the others. He said: “Friend, are you going over there to-morrow?”
“Yes, I mean to go.”
“Do you see these skulls? They belonged to people we killed from over there. They have not been paid for. They will take your head in payment, for you are our great friend!”
He looked hard at Tamate and added: “Will you go now?”
“Yes, I will go to-morrow morning, and God will take care of us.”
Beni, a Rarotongan teacher, was a widower. Tamate said to him: “You heard all the natives said yesterday. I am going to Tepauri. Will you come?”
He agreed, and the two went off together. When they reached Tepauri they found themselves in the midst of a wild dancing mob. The natives shouted and waved their spears and their clubs, and made believe to throw them.
Every now and again they cried: “Goira, Goira.”
This sounded like a Rarotongan word which meant “spear them.” The natives caught Tamate’s hand and rushed along the shore with him. The teacher was forced to follow close behind, and still the men of Tepauri danced and shouted and aimed their spears at unseen foes.
They came to the bed of a stream. Tamate stuck his heel against a stone to try to stop himself, but he was lifted over it and on and on, stumbling and running and clambering up the stony bed. He turned to Beni and said, “Try to get back. They may let you go.”