for Ngatiporou is a crack-jaw word to pronounce."

Unfortunately a quarrel arose after the battle between Rapata's men and
the Napier tribesmen, and three hundred of the latter went off. The next
morning Rapata and his tribe, with the remaining Wairoa men, marched out
to attack the position the enemy occupied on the top of a hill two miles
away. Mr. Preece led the advanced party, and found the defences
consisted of two lines of strong earthworks extending across a flat
shoulder, either end resting on a cliff. Mr. Preece halted his men until
Rapata came up with the main body. Wilfrid and Mr. Atherton had attached
themselves to the Ngatiporou. Just as they joined Mr. Preece one of the
men fired off a gun, and the enemy answered with a heavy volley.
Instantly a panic set in, and the whole force, with the exception of
some sixteen or eighteen men, bolted. One of the chiefs under Mr. Preece
followed and managed to stop them, and persuaded them to wait until
Rapata could return to them. This they agreed to do, but refused
positively to return to the attack.

Mr. Preece returned to Rapata, who was in a state of fury at the
defection of his tribe. "We will go on and attack the place by
ourselves," he said. "Perhaps the cowards will come up when they hear we
are fighting." Mr. Preece at once agreed, and the party, consisting of
the two leaders, Mr. Atherton and Wilfrid, and fourteen of Rapata's
men, worked back through the low scrub until between twenty-five yards
of the first line of earthworks, when they opened fire upon the enemy.

"This is rather close work, Wilfrid," Mr. Atherton said. "We have the
best of it in some respects, because they cannot make out our position
among the bushes, and they are obliged to stand up and show their heads
above the parapet when they fire. We ought never to miss them at this
distance, and we will soon teach them that it is fatal to pause a moment
to take aim, so at the worst they will only blaze away at random."

For some time the fight continued, and then Rapata requested Mr. Preece
to go down the hill and bring up some more men. Only nine men would
follow Mr. Preece, and Rapata was so disgusted that he himself went down
for some distance and managed to get thirty more. One of the men had
brought a bill up with him, and with this shallow rifle-pits were dug
among the bushes, affording a shelter to the men as they lay flat while
loading. At three o'clock in the afternoon the chief called o