at I feel washed out at
present.' I took him out a glass of brandy and water, he drank it and
said, 'I feel ashamed at being waited on by you, Mrs. Renshaw, when you
must be as tired as I am. Please do not bother any more about me, but if
you will ask one of the others to get a native blanket to throw over me
to keep off the dew I shall be all right in the morning; but I do not
feel as if I could get on my feet again to-night if a fortune depended
on it.' Of course I did as he asked me, and I was perfectly stupefied
this morning when I heard that he had been up at two o'clock and had
gone off with a party of natives to bring you in."

"It was awfully good of him," Wilfrid said, "and he never said a word to
me about it. Where is he?" and he looked round. But Mr. Atherton had
disappeared.

"Have you seen Mr. Atherton?" they asked Mr. Wylie, as he came out of a
large hut that had been given up for the use of the fugitives.

"He has just had a glass of spirits and water--unfortunately we had no
tea to offer him--and a piece of bread, and has taken a blanket and has
gone off to an empty hut; he said he intended to sleep until to-morrow
morning," and indeed it was not until next day that Mr. Atherton again
appeared.

Several friendly natives arrived one after another at the village. They
brought the news that the Hau-Haus had attacked only the colonists round
Matawairo, and that all the rest of the settlers were gathered at
Taranganui; but the Hau-Haus were plundering all the deserted houses,
and were shooting down all the natives who refused to join them. It was
afterwards found indeed that the natives had suffered even more severely
than the whites, for while thirty-three of the latter were murdered
thirty-seven of the natives were killed. Major Westrupp had left by ship
for Napier to obtain assistance, Lieutenant Gascoyne had made his way
safely through the Hau-Haus to Taranganui, and had sent a whale-boat out
to a schooner that was seen passing down the coast. She at once came
into the port, and the women and children were sent off to Napier. The
garrison of the fort had been reinforced by the friendly natives under
their chief Henare Potare, and were awaiting the expected attack by Te
Kooti.

A week later news came that Major Westrupp and Captain Tuke had arrived
from Napier with three hundred natives, and that the Hau-Haus had
retired with their plunder. The party at Te Mahia at once started for
the coast accompan