"War to the Knife;" or, Tangata Maori by Rolf Boldrewood (100 best novels of all time TXT) 📕

of terror and amazement. "But surely they have always spared the missionaries?"

"The new teaching is that all the missionaries are to be killed," said the girl. "We have heard that Mr. Grace has been threatened, and Mr. Fulloon's house burned."

"But will not the troops protect us?" urged Mrs. Summers. "I thought they were quite close now?"

"They have marched to Te Awamutu. I was told so by a native woman yesterday," said Erena. "She said, besides, that Ngarara, the man who has sworn to revenge himself upon Roland, is out with a taua, or war-party, and may at any time surprise us."

"I suppose that is the reason you were so anxious to get on?"

"Partly, yes. And, besides, I did not wish to bring trouble on your household. But we must go [Pg 368] forward tomorrow, and perhaps what I am afraid of may never come to pass."

The day was mild and pleasant, though a louring sky had promised otherwise in the early part of the morning. Massinger was able to be moved into the sitting-room, and there, refreshed by his morning meal and the change of situation, declared that he felt strong enough to travel in the afternoon.

"We have arranged otherwise," said Erena, with a mock assumption of authority. "One day will not make much difference. I am going to the camp for an hour, so I will leave you to the care of Miss Tollemache." Here she smiled playfully at Hypatia, who had just entered the room. "I dare say you are anxious to have a talk together."

"How trusting and unsuspicious she is!" thought Hypatia. "Having once received his troth, she is absolutely sure of his fidelity. She has a noble nature, and, from me at least, she need not fear any disloyalty."

Mrs. Summers had already left the room. Then the man and the maiden who had last met under such widely different circumstances in another land, were once more free to have speech, undisturbed by the presence of onlookers.

But for this forest nymph, so sweet, so strong, so impossible to condemn, how differently even yet might their romance have ended! But the knight was in the toils of the Queen of Faerye, and to Elfland he must fare, under pain of death, or transformation to a being that even she could not recognize. A creature false to his plighted troth, ungrateful to the girl who had saved his life at the risk of her own, whose love he had won. A love not transient and [Pg 369] fleeting, like so many affected by the women of his race, founded upon vanity, ambition, greed of wealth or rank, but changeless, immortal, strong as death, true to the grave, even to the dark realm beyond it.

Hypatia had probed and purified her heart, and she felt, though she loved him now with a force and passionate feeling hitherto unsuspected, that she could not for worlds have accepted his hand, even had he offered it.

They were now two different people. She, after trial, change, and the bitterness of lost illusions, had vowed herself to the life-devotion which succeeds the sanguine expectation of mighty work among the heathen. He, the haggard, war-worn soldier, sick unto death and sore wounded—ah! so unlike the trim sportsman and correctly attired country gentleman of the old half-forgotten life.

He was the first to speak. She gazed on him with the pitying tenderness of womanhood shining through her troubled eyes.

"A strange meeting, Miss Tollemache, in a strange land!" he said, with a brave attempt to smile. "Rather a change from Hereford here! Who would have thought of seeing you here, of all people?"

She made haste to reply, lest the unshed tears should resist all efforts to control them. She would have thrown herself on her knees by the side of his couch and clasped his wasted hand, had she dared to give vent to her feelings. Then she spoke lightly, though her mouth quivered with the effort.

"Isn't it hard to say where you may fall in with any given man, or woman either, if it comes to that, in these exciting days?"

[Pg 370]

"Certainly you are the last person I ever expected to see here," he made answer, half musingly. "In New Zealand of all places, and at this particular mission station!"

"It is easy of explanation. I was tired of London life—disillusioned, if you will. You prophesied it, you may remember; and hearing from my old schoolfellow, Mary Summers, that she was hard pressed for help in her work, took my passage, and here I am."

"So I see," he replied gravely. "And from what I have heard lately, I heartily wish that you were anywhere else."

"But, surely, if there be danger—and I suppose you mean that—I have no more right to be shielded than another."

"Mrs. Summers, whom I deeply respect, has followed her husband in the path of a plain duty. But why you, without ties or adequate reason, should have volunteered for this forlorn hope, I cannot comprehend. It is the personal sacrifice which has a charm for some women, I suppose," he went on.

"And for some men," she retorted, "else why should you be here, wounded almost to the death in a quarrel in which you had no share, and which I believe in my heart you consider unjust. When will men come to understand that women differ widely among themselves, and are attracted, even as they are, by novelty and adventure?"

"Mine is only a man's answer, and scarcely logical either, but it is the best I have. I came to New Zealand because I could not live in England. Like you, I had lost a world of hope, trust, and fond illusion. This war was commenced without my consent [Pg 371] or support, but finding myself between two camps, I chose the British one."

"It was very natural," she said with a sigh. "But tell me of yourself. How were you wounded, and why did you not remain at the camp?"

"I should have remained there altogether," he said, with a flickering smile, "had it not been for Erena and her two cousins. We met with a reverse at the Gate Pah, and every man that fell near me was tomahawked within two minutes. These girls rushed in through a hail of bullets and dragged me into the high fern, where I lay safely until some of the Ngapuhi joined them. They carried me to a cave only known to the tohunga and a few individuals of the tribe."

"And after that?"

"I found next morning that the bleeding had been stopped and the wound bandaged. Since then I have been terribly weak, but am now recovering slowly, very slowly. To-day I feel better than I have done for some time past. I shall pick up as soon as we reach the shore."

"May God grant it," she replied. "If it was through any act of mine that you quitted home and friends, I should feel that your blood was on my head. When I think of your renunciation, I cannot help doubting whether any woman is worth the sacrifice. And now we must say farewell. You are to leave at dawn, I hear; so if we are doomed never to meet again, think kindly of Hypatia Tollemache, and believe that you have her best wishes, her prayers."

As she spoke she held out her hand, which he clasped in his; so thin and wasted was it that the tears rose to her eyes. He pressed his lips passionately to it, and relinquished the slender fingers with a sigh.

[Pg 372]

It was late when Erena returned. The little household was assembled at the evening meal when she entered the room, and, declining to join the repast, stood with a countenance troubled and darkly boding before she spoke. So might Cassandra, as she stood before the Trojan host in high-walled Ilion.

"Bad news!" she said abruptly. "So bad that it could hardly be worse. This Hau-Hau sect is gaining ground. They are carrying round Captain Boyd's head to stir up the tribes; they have murdered Mr. Volkner, and are marching towards the coast. No one can tell where they will strike next."

The countenances of the women blanched as this announcement was made. Mr. Summers, though visibly affected, preserved his composure, as he asked where the dreadful deed took place.

"At Opotiki," said Erena. "He came in a vessel, though he was warned not to do so. He and Mr. Grace, another missionary, were at once taken prisoners, and Mr. Volkner was hanged on a willow tree by Kereopa; the tribe assenting."

"Is there any chance of their coming here?" said Mr. Summers. "We have never had the slightest altercation with the tribes. I have been here since 1850, and every thought of my heart, every word from my lips, has been with the object of their benefit. No chief would permit such an outrage, such an unheard-of crime."

"You do not know Kereopa," replied Erena. "He is one of those natives who go perfectly mad when their blood is up, and think no more of killing any man, woman, or child near him than you people do of wringing the neck of a kea. Besides, Te Ua, [Pg 373] who has declared himself to be a prophet, boasts of a message from the angel Gabriel, that the sword of the Lord and Gideon is committed into the hands of the Pai Marire, with which to smite the pakeha and the unfaithful Maoris. But I have sent one who will put Ropata on their track; if he comes up with them, they will learn more of Old Testament law."

"A day of rebuke and blasphemy, murder and outrage," groaned Cyril Summers. "And is this to be the end of our labours? I feel inclined, though it is putting one's hand to the plough and turning back, to make for the coast until matters are more peaceful. What do you intend to do?"

"My people and I, with Mr. Massinger, will start at midnight," said the girl, decisively. "I wish now that we had left this morning. I implore of you to leave with your family at the same time."

"But the road in the darkness?" said Summers. "The forest is difficult to thread by daylight."

"To our guide," said Erena, "the night is as the day. We shall keep on steadily until we reach Tauranga."

"I am tempted to join forces with you," he said. "But no! we must show the natives that we believe what we have taught them—that God is able to save those who trust in Him. Mary, Hypatia, you had better go with Erena's party, and take the children."

The delicate form of Mary Summers seemed to gain height and dignity as, with all the devoted courage of her "deep love's truth" shining in her steadfast eyes, she said, "I have but to repeat the words I spoke in the church where our lives were joined—'till death do us part.' My place is by you, my darling, here and hereafter. May God protect us all in this dread hour!"

[Pg 374]

"And Miss Tollemache?" said Erena, addressing Hypatia. "Will you wait for the coming of the Hau-Haus—to be carried off as a slave, perhaps?" and here her piercing gaze seemed to read Hypatia's inmost soul. "You do not know what that means; I do! Taunts and blows, water to draw, burdens to carry, degradation unspeakable!"

The English girl drew herself up and returned the fixed regard of the daughter of the South with a look as unblenching as her own, ere she answered, calmly, almost haughtily—

"When I promised my friends to be a fellow-labourer with them, I made no reservations. I have cast in my lot with them, and will share their fortunes, even to the martyr's death, if it be so ordained."

Erena watched her with an expression of surprise which changed to frank admiration.

"Farewell, O friends," she said; "may God protect you from all evil. As for you, you are worthy of his friendship, of his love."

As she made the last gesture of farewell, she stooped, and taking Hypatia's unresisting hand, raised it to her lips and glided from the room.

It was no time for sleep. Praying and conversing by turns, the household awaited the departure of the little band. From the verandah they watched the bearers emerge from Massinger's room with the couch. This they placed upon the litter on which he had lain for so many a weary mile. They saw Erena take her place beside it as the bearers moved silently away. A dark form glided before them on the narrow path, the cort�ge followed through the darksome arches of the forest, and was swallowed up in the midnight gloom.

[Pg 375]

After their departure, the household engaged in prayer. When Cyril Summers addressed the Almighty Disposer of events in earnest supplication that His servants might be spared the last terrible penalties of savage warfare, it cannot be doubted that each hearer's inmost heart responded most fervently to the appeal. Mrs. Summers wept as, with her hand in her husband's, she echoed his cry for deliverance, and rising from her knees with streaming eyes, threw her arms around Hypatia's neck.

"We have