‘That’s it,’ said Eru, and made off.

Attracted by Mrs Te Papa’s cries, other women came out of the houses and, calling to each other, trooped towards the meeting house. Eru was joined by three youths. They stood with their hands in their pockets, watching Mr Falls and Dikon. Dikon still felt very sick, and hoped ardently that he would not disgrace himself before the youths.

Mr Falls was about to tap on the door when it opened and old Rua stood upon the threshold. Mrs Te Papa shouted agitatedly. He answered her in Maori and waited courteously for his visitors to announce their errand. Falls delivered Sergeant Webley’s message and Rua at once said that he would come with them. He shouted, and a small girl ran out of the house, bringing the grey blanket he wore on his shoulders. ‘It is as well,’ he said tranquilly, but with a faint glint in his eyes, ‘to give instant obedience when it is a policeman who asks. Let us go.’ He turned off as if to follow the track that led to the main road.

‘We’ve got the Sergeant’s permission to cross the reserve,’ said Mr Falls.

‘It will be better by the road,’ said Rua.

‘It’s very much farther,’ Falls pointed out.

‘Then we should take Mrs Te Papa’s car.’ Again Rua shouted and Mrs Te Papa broke off in the middle of a desolate wail to say prosaically: ‘All right, you take him but he won’t go.’

‘We shall take him,’ said Rua, ‘and perhaps he will go.’

‘Eru can make him go,’ Mrs Te Papa remarked and she hurled an order across the marae. Eru detached himself from the group of young men and slouched off behind the houses.

‘Thank you so much, Mrs Te Papa,’ said Falls, taking off his hat.

‘You are very welcome,’ she replied, and composed herself for a further lamentation.

Mrs Te Papa’s car was not so much a car as a mass of wreckage. It stood in a back yard in a little pool of oil, sketchily protected by the remains of its own fabric hood. One of its peeling doors hung disconsolately from a single hinge. It was markedly bandy and had that look of battered gentility that belongs to very old-fashioned vehicles.

Rua opened the only door that was shut and said: ‘Do you prefer front or back?’

‘I shall sit in the back with you, if I may,’ said Falls.

Dikon climbed into the front. Eru wrenched at the starting handle and, as though he had dug a thumb in her ribs, the old car gave a galvanic start and set up a terrific commotion. ‘Ah!’ Rua shouted cheerfully. ‘She goes, you see.’ Having been left in gear, she almost ran over her driver. However, Eru flung himself in as she passed, and in a moment they were jolting up the hill. The noise was appalling.