AS MAN-EATERS GO

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 301, 1 October 1938, Page 11

AS MAN-EATERS GO

By J. HALKET MILLAR. :: Author of "The Bayly Murder Case.”

CHAPTER 27. According to the conversation we had overheard near the caves where the Taipo was supposed to take up his residence, the attack was not due till the next day, hut Motai would have nothing to do with delay. He moved about the fortress exhorting his men to deeds of valour and generally striving to elevate the morale of the defenders, who still harboured some clread of the toliunga’s omen. From the gate to the fire was perhaps two hundred yards, and therefore within easy reach of the darts which the Maoris sometimes used, throwing them with great accuracy by means of a sort of sling. These darts were made from the fern tree and were extremely poisonous. While I was at another part of the defences watching for signs of the enemy in that quarter, Motai gave orders for a shower of the darts to be hurled at the figures who now and then passed round the distant fire. The first intimation I had of the matter was a yell from the darkness, followed by an exultant shout from our tribe, and on rushing back I learned that two of the enemy had been stricken. Upon this I told Motai of Raumati’s party now on their way to recover the powder, explaining that if we should get it we might be able to use it in some way to rout the besiegers. It took some little time to tell him of the nature of the powder and, in the meantime, the warriors had sent forth several more showers of the deadly darts.

“You must stop them, or I wash my hands of the care of your fortress,” said I vehemently, but even then J had almost to drive him to put a stop to the dart throwing. If we opened the attack it seemed certain that the invaders would retaliate sooner than 1 expected and Raumati’s expedition would prove fruitless.

Blit it was too late. The damage had been done; and the wrath of the southerners was roused. More fires appeared and by their light we saw them massing for an immediate attack. There was only one way up as I have said, and they were well aware that our main defence lay in that fact. Nevertheless they were relying on weight of numbers to dislodge us from the main gate, beat us back over the farther extremity of the hill top, and drive us down the cliff to certain destruction.

What I most dreaded was the effect musket fire would have on our people, who, till now, I supposed, had never heard the roar of them. It would be a stern battle, and we must win. I relied on the stones to stand us in good stead, but they would turn the trick only once. After that, who knew what would happen ? God send that Raumati found the powder! So we waited, while the women folk crouched in the shelter of the huts, clutching the little children, who wept bitterly with terror.

From the night there suddenly came the dull throb of a war drum, seeming to roll back from every hill in the vicinity like dying thunder. Then sounded the groaning and long-drawn-out blast of a conch shell, while the daunting cry of the war. song roared up to us. No one moved. I gripped my cutlass tightly and stood watching the shadowy mass out there in front. Then, with a last yell of defiance, they started down the grade and before we realised it, were at the foot of the declivity.

Calling to Motai and a few men around me, I sprang to the hack of the gate and cast loose the ropes that led out to the sticks which supported the stones. To each man I handed a rope. t

“When I give the word, pull for your lives,” I said. Down in the cutting the Men of Oromahoe were swarming like madmen, but at the same time keeping a wonderful order as they climbed. The narrow opening was filled with them and my heart pounded in my ears so that I scarce heard the shouts that floated up to me. The front rank was within a score of feet of the obstruction when I raised my voice above the clangour. “Pull! Pull!” I shouted.

Together we heaved on the ropes and a few stones fell. For one dreadful moment I thought the trap had failed, but of a sudden the wall collapsed in its entire length and the great boulders were roaring down upon the enemy, breaking them like reeds in a flood and smashing great lanes through their ranks. Shrieking and shouting, the entrapped men sought to evade the avalanche, but those in the rear, at first unaware of the happenings in front, blocked the path, and as the stones crashed among them, the gorge was transformed into a shambles. At the same time our men in the fighting towers hurled spears and stones and darts upon the surviving rabble as they fled. Wo saw tho shattered column passing the line of fires, and our men raised their -cry of exultant triumph. At one blow we had disorganised our foes and had thrust them back whence they on mb, without their having had a chance to strike a single blow against us. That, however, would not bo the last we would hear of them, and throughout the night we manned the palisades, keeping a ceaseless watch, but dawn broke without-any attack having been made. ' In tho grey light of the coming day we looked out upon tho dead strewn below us and I marvelled that the boulders had wrought such utter havoc. Mutilated they lay, in groups as though stricken down by the same stone as it had careered down the slope. The wounded had either crawled out of sight, or had been smuggled away in the darkness, but we heard no sound while wo kept watch. Barely had the sun risen than a l musket cracked from tho forest, and a bullet slashed itself into the gate

A Story of Adventure Among the Maoris. AH Rights Reserved.

beside which I stood, foolishly exposed. The whalers were now taking a hand in the affair, and I had jnst time to fall upon my face when a second shot struck beside its fellow, sending chips of wood flying about my ears. Try as I might, I could not locate the marksmen who, apparently high up in a tree, had a distinct advantage with their muskets. Seven shots were fired in about as many minutes and then the shooting ceased. I. cast about to see the effect, upon the natives, but beyond sighing deeply* or grunting whenever a bullet struck, they took little interest. Motai crawled to my side upon his belly, bringing a. bundle of food for which I thanked him. I was ravenously hungry, but up till then had not thought of food in the excitement of the fight. “The warriors are not afraid of the white man’s gun?” I asked as I ate. “It is not the first timo they have heard it,” he replied easily, to my very great astonishment. Then seeing my look he continued: “Three seasons such as this have passed since a great strange canoe came over the sky rim with two score white men, and when they used their thunder against us, we attacked and their canoe was destined, together with all the men who were in it.”

He would have said more, but at that moment a sentry raised the cry that the nxhx from the south were returning to the attack, and sure enough, when I looked, I saw them marching steadily over the hill, making without hesitation for the gate. Several of them carried heavy logs, with which they intended to batter down the gate. In their eagerness our men again leaped upon the platforms and waved their weapons at the approaching foe.

It was then that the hidden whalers commenced to fire, and three of the defenders fell, at sight of which the remainder jumped for shelter. Rallying the men about me, I rushed the greater number of them to the gate where the heaviest fighting would come, placing them in ranks. And still the bullets whizzed around our heads, flicking pieces out of the carved figures set up along the palisades and whining out into the hills beyond. Till the first of the invaders had arrived within a stone’s throw of the gate, the whalers continued to fire, picking off half a dozen of the men. The initiative lay with the attackers, and they were not long in showing us that, in their estimation, we had not much time left in this world. '-At Motai’s word, wo commenced to throw our spears and all manner of missiles, hut while many fell, the remainder came on to the gate. With long spears we managed to keep them from driving the log at the gate, buj; at last one or two broke in under the spears and started hacking at the vines which held the posts upright. Thus the gate was somewhat weakened before they were dislodged, and it gave them an advantage. With a mighty yell nearly a score of them picked up one of the logs and rushed at us, and for all we might do they smashed it through the gate, but with not sufficient force to break it down. Thrusting savagely at them through the posts we at last drove them off, and were surprised to see the whole party retreat into the gorge. There they stood in what shelter they could find while we took stock of the position. So far we had lost eleven men killed and seventeen wounded, and the enemy in their last assault had suffered something more than that.

An hour later, reinforced by fresh warriors they again came up the defile and dashed a second log through the gate which shook and trembled alarmingly. It could not hold out much longer against such shocks. I began to have misgivings. A second time we drove them back, and a third; now we saw the whole army arraying itself for a great effort, and still no word of Raumati.

They were massing for the final assault when Motai ran to me with the news that our powder party had been sighted on its way back and should be here within the hour. I asked him how he knew, and he pointed to a distant hill where the smoke of a fire rose into the still air. Even as I looked, two puffs of smoke, followed by another, and then two more, rose up and Motai’’s eyes flashed. “See for yourself,’ ’ cried he. I had no time to ask how he read these signals, for by now the enemy were at our very door, where they had been accorded a warm reception. Desperate fighting was-in progress when I again joined the defenders, crying aloud for them to take heart, for succour was at hand. 1 had no means of marking the flight of time, but it must have been an hour or more afterwards that I felt myself pulled clear of the fray that surged about, the broken gate, and turned to face Raumati. No need to ask if his mission- had been successful; it showed in lijs sweatstreaked face. It was in my whare was all lie told me before ho was among the besiegers, thrusting and hewing like a maniac. Despite our efforts, the gate went down at last and the first of the besiegers entered through the opening, only to pay the price of their gallantry. A tide of dark and hate-filled faces surged in upon us and in less than a minute wo were all mixed up in a fearful struggle. On the one hand the invaders fought to avenge their wrongs; on the other the people of tho fortress battled to preserve their ancestral home. Nothing more dreadful can lie imagined than that battle for the pa. Around us rose the screams of the dying and the hideous cries of the fighters, while the dead lay in heaps. No man of that tribe would give in while his strength lasted and they literally fought till they dropped, so maintaining to the last the great traditions of their war-like race. When it seemed that no power on

earth could stem the oncoming Men of Oromahoe, the fight stopped dead, for high above the din broke out the wailing cry that I had heard once before — the voice of the Taipo! As if by magic every weapon dropped though it had been in tho act of striking, and all eyes turned to the hills whence came the sound. A dead silence reigned, and amid the deep breathing of friend and foe, there again rose that ghastly, sobbing call of the Taipo: “00-00-00-nh-00-00-ah-OQ Visibly shaken, our men trembled, but for the Men of Oromahoe the cry was as the voice of Doom. With one accord they broke and fled, leaving the pa in our hands, fhough wo were too shocked by the incident to realise i"t. (To be Continued).