ay of the Big House, he followed at the heels of Mauriri. At his
own heels, doglike, plodded Hare-Lip. From behind came the cries of the
hunters, but the pace Mauriri led them was heartbreaking. The broad path
narrowed, swung to the right, and pitched upward. The last grass house
was left, and through high thickets of _cassi_ and swarms of great
golden wasps the way rose steeply until it became a goat-track. Pointing
upward to a bare shoulder of volcanic rock, Mauriri indicated the trail
across its face.

"Past that we are safe, Big Brother," he said. "The white devils never
dare it, for there are rocks we roll down on their heads, and there
is no other path. Always do they stop here and shoot when we cross the
rock. Come!"

A quarter of an hour later they paused where the trail went naked on the
face of the rock.

"Wait, and when you come, come quickly," Mauriri cautioned.

He sprang into the blaze of sunlight, and from below several rifles
pumped rapidly. Bullets smacked about him, and puffs of stone-dust
flew out, but he won safely across. Grief followed, and so near did
one bullet come that the dust of its impact stung his cheek. Nor was
Hare-Lip struck, though he essayed the passage more slowly.

For the rest of the day, on the greater heights, they lay in a lava glen
where terraced taro and _papaia_ grew. And here Grief made his plans and
learned the fulness of the situation.

"It was ill luck," Mauriri said. "Of all nights this one night was
selected by the white devils to go fishing. It was dark as we came
through the passage. They were in boats and canoes. Always do they have
their rifles with them. One Raiatea man they shot. Brown was very brave.
We tried to get by to the top of the bay, but they headed us off, and we
were driven in between the Big Rock and the village. We saved the guns
and all the ammunition, but they got the boat. Thus they learned of your
coming. Brown is now on this side of the Big Rock with the guns and the
ammunition."

"But why didn't he go over the top of the Big Rock and give me warning
as I came in from the sea?" Grief criticised.

"They knew not the way. Only the goats and I know the way. And this I
forgot, for I crept through the bush to gain the water and swim to you.
But the devils were in the bush shooting at Brown and the Raiatea men;
and me they hunted till daylight, and through the morning they hunted
me there in the low-lying land. Then you came in your schooner, a