Again that shout, loud and insistent, crying something in Maori which he could not understand. Yet when he heard it, he trembled all the more, for there was something in the voice which rang familiar in his ears. Yet how could that be?
Once more the frantic appeal: 'Kei whakamate ia koe!—Do not kill him! Do not kill him!'
Stamping footsteps, crushing down the rustling fern—nearer, louder, furious at the feeble opposition. And at last a man, panting, sobbing for breath, burst into the open space illumined by the bivouac fire, gasping as he came his ever-recurring 'Kei whakamate ia koe!'
For one instant the soldier stared, incredulous. He seemed paralysed. His eyes started from his head. His limbs shook under him. Suddenly he felt the tightening noose, stiffened, caught at a hasty breath, and spent it in a quavering shriek: 'George! Quick! They're murdering me!'
The two Maoris with the rope set off at a run. But ere the cord could press the swelling throat, George Haughton crashed through the encircling crowd, tumbling them this way and that; and, as he charged down upon them, whirling the mysterious mere over his head, the executioners dropped the rope and fled for their lives, howling.
In an instant George was at his friend, plucked the cruel rope from his neck, and flung it away. Then pushing Terence behind him against the tree, he stood on the defensive, eyes glaring, but keen; his chest heaving from his run; challenge and menace in every line of him.
CHAPTER X
TOGETHER AGAIN
When the Maoris recovered from the shock of his rush, they faced George as he stood covering his friend's body with his own. There was no noise, no shouting; but the stern Roman faces looked very grim and determined. Then Winata Pakaro with oily tongue began an argument, in the midst of which was heard the click of the hammer of a gun drawn back to full cock.
But while Winata's smooth periods flowed on, there was a sudden rush, a scuffle, a shout of wrathful surprise, and there was George back again under the tree with the rifle in his hand. He had wrested it from the astonished warrior who had so stealthily—as he imagined—made ready to use it.