'All this thou knewest, O Hawk of the Mountain! All this I spake in thine ear, O son of the dead and gone White Mist!' declaimed the old wizard. 'Guile, not force, must win the mere of TUMATAUENGA from the Pakeha to whom Te Kaihuia gave it. Yet, if he resign the weapon of his own free will, even though he lay it aside but for a moment, and thou hast the wit to seize it, then it is thine.' His voice sank suddenly to an ordinary tone. 'But doubtless, so astute a man as Te Karearea, knowing all this, has already acted upon it. Say then, O friend,' he concluded mildly, 'where is the mere of TUMATAUENGA?'
Very slowly Te Karearea drew his greenstone club from his belt and stretched his sinewy arm across the tapu line. 'It is here,' he faltered, and almost as the lie dropped from his lips, leaped backwards with a wild yell of terror.
For the lizard, suddenly and mysteriously endowed with life, sprang straight at him, its scaly body colliding with his hand.
Te Karearea's club clattered to the ground, and his limbs, stiff with horror, held him rooted to the spot after that one backward impulse; while the lizard, its strange vitality extinguished as instantly as it had been kindled, tumbled back inertly upon the ridge.
'Liar!' shrieked the old man, shaking a warning finger in the face of the trembling chief. 'Fool! who thought to deceive the watchful TUMATAUENGA. Hear now, O stupid Hawk, the word which the gods have spoken to me.'
Te Karearea was badly stricken as it was, but his eyes bulged as Kapua Mangu poured out the whole history of the greenstone club from the moment when Te Kaihuia had handed it to George. He had spoken with none but the chief since the arrival of the Hau-haus, and yet the minutest details were known to him, and he lashed Te Karearea with his tongue until, compelled by exhaustion, he stopped and staggered back against the tree.
Now was Te Karearea's opportunity to escape, and he stooped swiftly to regain his club, keeping a wary eye upon the lizard, when suddenly he discerned around the body of the tuatara a thin cord of blackened flax, indistinguishable in the gloom, unless closely looked for. Te Karearea drew his mat across his face so that he might indulge in a quiet grin.
Presently Kapua Mangu, having got his second wind, advanced to complete the humiliation of the chief; but to his amazement, he detected a decided sneer on Te Karearea's thin lips.
'Beware, O stupid Hawk!' he yelled fiercely. 'Beware, lest I deliver you into the power of the tuatara.'
For answer Te Karearea snatched up the cord, wrenched the end from the magician's hand, and slung the lizard from him with a derisive laugh. It fell just within the circle of heads.