‘I see no reason,’ Mr Falls began in a stentorian voice, ‘why you should not be told the object of Sergeant Webley’s message.’

Dikon slewed round in his seat to gaze in consternation at Mr Falls. He met the unwinking glare of old Rua, huddled comfortably in his blanket.

‘Webley wants your opinion on a native weapon,’ Falls continued. ‘A beautiful piece, it seems to me, a collector’s piece.’ Rua said nothing. ‘I should call it an adze but perhaps that is incorrect. Let me describe it.’

He described it with extraordinary accuracy and in such detail that Dikon was first amazed at his faculty of observation and then extremely suspicious of it. Could Mr Falls possibly have seen all these things through his window during the brief time that the adze was on the verandah table?

‘One thing struck me very forcibly,’ Mr Falls was saying. ‘The figure at the head of the haft has got, not one protruding tongue, but two. Two long protruding tongues, side by side. The little god, if indeed he is a god, holds one in each of his three-fingered hands. Between the fingers there are small pieces of shell and beneath them the tongues are encircled by a narrow band.’

‘You are driving too fast, Eru,’ said old Rua, to Dikon’s profound relief. Mrs Te Papa’s car, bucketing down a steep incline, had developed a curious flaunting movement which, he felt certain, its back axle could sustain no longer. Eru checked her with a jerk.

‘The band itself,’ Mr Falls continued mellifluously in the comparative silence, ‘is most delicately carved. One marvels at the skill of your ancient craftsmen, Mr Te Kahu. When one considers that their tools were those of a stone age—what did you say?’

Rua had made some ejaculation in his native tongue.

‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Drive carefully, Eru. You are too impetuous.’

‘But it seems to me that across this band some other hand has graved three vertical furrows. The design is repeated all over the weapon, but in no other place do these three lines occur. Now how do you explain that?’

Rua did not answer at once. Eru trod violently on the accelerator, and Dikon repressed a cry of dismay as Mrs Te Papa’s car responded with a shattering leap. Rua’s words were lost in the din of progress. ‘Wait…impossible…until I see…’

He roared at Eru and at the same time Dikon turned to protest against this new turn of speed. He saw, with astonishment, that the half-caste’s lips were trembling, that his face was livid. ‘He must be feeling like I feel,’ thought Dikon. ‘He must have seen everything through the hole in the manuka hedge.’

Mr Falls leant forward and tapped Eru on the shoulder. He started violently.

‘I hear you missed the star turn at the concert last night,’ said Mr Falls.

‘We heard some of it,’ said Eru. ‘It was all right, too!’