agination,"
said I. "Anyway, the beggar must be a tough one to kill; for while I
feel as certain as you do that I hit him, the fact remains that he was
very far from being dead when we last saw him; furthermore, that yonder
plain harbours such creatures is a strong argument against our camping
there to-night; the only thing, therefore, that I can see for it is to
stand off-shore for a mile or two, anchor the boat, and rough it aboard
her for the night."

Which we did. And ample reason had we to congratulate ourselves upon
our decision, for shortly after nightfall and all through the hours of
darkness our ears were assailed by an almost continuous succession of
such hair-raising shrieks and howls, roars and bellowings, as thoroughly
convinced me that North Island was no sort of dwelling-place for human
beings with a penchant for peace and quietness. Furthermore, there was
a moon, that night, well advanced in her second quarter, and at frequent
intervals during a particularly restless night I caught glimpses of
shadowy forms moving restlessly hither and thither ashore.

With the arrival of dawn next morning we were astir; and after an early
breakfast the anchor was hove up and we got under way to resume our
voyage of exploration. On the previous afternoon we pretty closely
skirted the western shore of the bay; now, on our way out, we as closely
hugged the eastern shore, which I kept under continuous scrutiny with
the help of the telescope. But nothing worthy of record was seen; and
that day's voyage might be dismissed with the mere mention of it, but
for the fact that when we were about half-way down the bay we reached a
spot where the water and the swamp were so intermingled that we actually
ran right into a vast bed of rushes without grounding. There was,
perhaps, nothing very remarkable about that, but there was a peculiarity
about those rushes that Billy was the first to observe and remark upon,
namely, their absolutely perfect straightness. This inspired me with an
idea: our stock of ammunition was limited, and when it should become
exhausted, what were we to do? So long as we remained upon the group we
_must_ have weapons of some sort, and the only substitute for the rifle
and revolver that I could think of was the bow and arrow. I cut one of
the rushes and found it to consist of an exceedingly hard outer casing
filled with soft pith; it was remarkably light; and it instantly
occurred to me that the smalle