d I feel as if I could walk
ever so far."

"Well, put your rifle in the litter, then," Mr. Atherton said; "its
weight will make no difference to us, and it will make a lot of
difference to you; when you are tired say so."

Wilfrid struggled on resolutely, refusing to stop until they reached a
stream two miles from the starting-place. Here they rested for an hour.
The settler's wounds were washed and rebandaged, the others partook of a
meal of bread and water, and they then continued the journey. At the end
of another half-mile Wilfrid was obliged to own that his strength could
hold out no longer, but he refused positively to accept Mr. Atherton's
proposal to come back for him.

"I will not hear of it, Mr. Atherton," he said. "From what Mrs. Sampson
says it is another eight or ten miles to the Mahia country. There is not
the least fear of any of the Hau-Haus following on our track. The best
way by far is this: I will go a hundred yards into the bush and lie
down. You push on. It will be dark before you finish your journey as it
is, you would not get there till to-morrow morning if you had to keep on
coming back for me; besides, you would never get on with the litter
after it is dark. Leave me a piece of bread, a bottle of water, my rifle
and revolver, and I shall be as comfortable among the bushes there as if
I were in bed. In the morning you can send out a party of Mahias to
fetch me in. If you break down a small bough here by the side of the
way, that will be quite sufficient to tell the natives where they are to
turn off from the path to look for me."

"Well, I really think that is the best plan, Wilfrid. There is, as you
say, no real danger in your stopping here alone. It would be a long job
coming back for you every time we halt, and it is of importance to get
Mr. Sampson laid down and quiet as soon as possible."

Mrs. Renshaw did not like leaving Wilfrid alone; but she saw that she
could be of no real assistance to him, and her aid was absolutely
required to carry the wounded man. She therefore offered no objections
to the proposal.

"Don't look downcast, mother," Wilfrid said as he kissed her. "The
weather is fine, and there is no hardship whatever in a night in the
bush, especially after what we went through when we were following Te
Kooti."

Wilfrid made his way a hundred yards back into the bush and then threw
himself down under a tree-fern, and in a very few minutes he was sound
asleep. The next time