CHAPTER XX
A BID FOR LIBERTY
'Up with you!' said George, holding the swaying ladder. 'Wait on top till we join you. What a good thing I had my flask.'
It was. The strong spirit nerved the invalids to the effort they were obliged to make, and in a few minutes the four of them were standing on the ledge outside the pah, and by means of the ladder easily scaled the palisades.
The clamour still continued, and George and Terence swiftly piloted their exhausted friends to the fence behind their hut. Here the ladder came into play again, and they made for the underground world, George explaining its peculiarities to Paeroa as they sped along.
'You will be safe enough if you do not wander far from the entrance,' he assured the Maori. 'We will manage to visit you before long.'
They left the basket of food and the flask with the refugees, and, still hurrying, for every minute was precious now, reached the shelter of their whare without encountering any of the Hau-haus.
'Have you found your club?' Terence asked, carefully bestowing cartridges in his various pockets.
'No,' George answered gloomily. 'I must have dropped it last night between the fence and the underground world. The strange part of it is that I should not have missed it till just now.'
'The thing is always generating mysteries,' grumbled Terence. 'I hope we shall find it, though; for it may make all the difference between life and death to us.'
'You are right,' said George, who seemed much upset. 'Of course I do not agree with you that there is anything supernatural about the club; but still—but still——'