h like that."

"I expected to be swept away every moment."

"I expected as we was going to be drownded, and if I'm to be drownded, I
don't want it to be like that. It was such a rough-and-tumble way."

Don was silent.

"Mas' Don."

"Yes."

"But, of course, I don't want to be drownded at all."

"No, Jem; of course not. I wonder whether they'll follow us across the
river."

"They'll follow us anywhere, Mas' Don, and catch us if they can. Say,
Mas' Don, though, I'm glad we've got old `my pakeha.' He'll show us the
way, and help us to get something to eat."

"I hope so, Jem."

"Say, Mas' Don, think we can trust him?"

"Trust him, Jem! Why, of course."

"That's all very well, Mas' Don. You're such a trusting chap. See how
you used to trust Mike Bannock, and how he turned you over."

"Yes; but he was a scoundrel. Ngati is a simple-hearted savage."

"Hope he is, Mas' Don; but what I'm feared on is, that he may be a
simple-stomached savage."

"Why, what do you mean, Jem?"

"Only as he may turn hungry some day, as 'tis his nature to."

"Of course."

"And then, 'spose he has us out in the woods at his mercy like, how
then?"

"Jem, you're always thinking about cannibals. How can you be so
absurd?"

"Come, I like that, Mas' Don; arn't I had enough to make me think of
'em?"

"Hssh!"

The warning came from Ngati; for just then the breeze seemed to sweep
the faint roar of the torrent aside, and the shouting of the Maoris came
loud and clear.

"They're over the river," said Jem excitedly. "Well, I've got a spear
in my hand, and I mean to die fighting for the sake of old Bristol and
my little wife."

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

IN THE WOODS.

"They're not over the river, Jem," said Don, impatiently. "I wish you
wouldn't always look on the worst side of everything."

"That's what your Uncle Josiah allus does with the sugar, Mas' Don. If
the foots was werry treacley when he had a hogshead turned up to look at
the bottom first, he allus used to say as all the rest was poor
quality."

"We're not dealing with sugar now."

"No, Mas' Don; this here arn't half so sweet. I wish it was."

"Hssh!" came from Ngati again. And for the rest of the night they
followed him in silence along ravines, over rugged patches of mountain
side, with the great fronds of the tree-ferns brushing their faces, and
nocturnal birds rushing away from them as their steps invaded the
solitudes where they indulged in t