She made a timid abortive gesture, half-raising her hand. Then, as if Rua had menaced her, she shot out her arm and pointed at Eru Saul.
Throughout the scenes that followed Dikon had the feeling that he was peering into some room which at first seemed to be quite dark. But, he thought, out of the shadow nearer objects presently appeared so that first the figure of Huia and then that of Eru were distinguishable, while behind these, in deeper shadow, more significant forms awaited the slow adjustment of his vision.
Eru faced old Rua with an air strangely compounded of terror and effrontery. Dikon fancied that a struggle was at work in the half-caste, between his European and his native impulses. If this was so the Maori, under Rua’s dominance, was the more potent agent. A shabby attempt at defiance soon broke down. Eru began with protestations and ended with a confession.
“I never touched it. I never took it. I never seen it before.”
“You knew where it rested. Huia, answer me. You told him where it was hidden?”
Huia nodded and burst into tears. Eru threw a venomous glance at her.
“So you, Eru, stole it and took money for it from this man Questing?”
“I never! I never knew he’d got it. I hadn’t got any time for him.”
“Huia, did you tell Questing?”
“No! No! Never. I never tell anyone but Eru. It was long time ago. I told Eru for fun when we go together. Nobody else. Eru told him.”
“If I’d thought it was for that bastard,” said Eru, “I’d never of told nobody.” And with extraordinary venom he added: “You and your fancy pakeha. I might’ve picked Questing was at the back of it. Why the hell didn’t he say it was for Questing?”
“To whom did you speak of this matter? Answer me.”
“Come on, Eru,” said Webley. “You won’t do yourself any good by holding out on it. There’s a serious charge mixed up in this business, don’t forget. You want to put yourself right, don’t you?”
“I told Bert Smith,” Eru muttered and Dikon thought he saw a little farther into the darkness of that shrouded room: not to the end, he thought, but a little farther. Webley moved forward and said to Simon, “Find Bert, will you?”
“O.K.,” said Simon.
When he appeared Smith was querulous and uneasy. “Can’t a bloke have any time to himself?” he demanded and then saw the adze in Rua’s hand. “By cripey!” he said. “By cripey, it’s Rewi’s axe.” He looked at Rua and drew a deep breath. “So he stuck to it, after all,” he said.
“Who stuck to what?” asked Webley. “Take a look at that axe, Bert. Have you ever seen it before? Come on.”
Smith cautiously approached Rua, who drew back. “You’ll have to let him see it, Rua,” said Webley. “Come on, now.”
“It’s all right,” said Smith. “I’ve never seen it but I know what it is all right. I’d heard all about it.”
“You stole it — ” Rua began and Smith, in a great hurry, interrupted him. “Not on your life, I didn’t! You haven’t got anything on me. I might of known where it was and I might of told him but I never went curio hunting on the Peak. No bloody fear, I didn’t.”
“You told Questing where it was?” Dr. Ackrington demanded. “Why?”
“Just a minute, Doctor, if you please,” Webley intercepted. “Now then, Bert. What was the idea, telling Questing?”
“He asked me.” And now it was Questing’s large face that showed in the dark.
“Asked you to find out? And paid you for your trouble, eh?” said Webley.
“All right. Put it that way. Nothing criminal in passing on a bit of information, is there? He asked me to find out and I found out. Eru told me. Come on, Eru. You told me, you know you did.”
“You said it was for the other bloke,” Eru said breathlessly.
“What other bloke?” Webley demanded. Eru once again jerked his head at Gaunt’s rooms. “Him,” he said. And Dikon now saw into the farthest corner of his imaginary room.
In the silence that followed, Mr. Falls said: “There seems to be a multiplicity of blokes all passing on information like a hot potato. Are we to understand, Sergeant Webley, that the deceased, on behalf of Mr. Gaunt, bribed Mr. Smith to bribe Mr. — Saul, is it? Thank you — Mr. Saul, to obtain information as to the locale of this exquisite weapon?”
“It looks as if that’s about the strength of it, sir.”
“You damn’ well choose your words!” said Smith indignantly. “Who’s talking about bribes? It was between friends. Him and me were cobbers, weren’t we, Sim?”
“I thought he tried to put you under the train, Bert,” said Webley.
“Oh, my Gawd, do I have to go into that again!” apostrophized Mr. Smith with evident fatigue. “We got it all ironed out. Here. Take a look.” He lugged out his written agreement with Questing and thrust it at Webley.
“Let it go,” said Webley. “You’ve showed me that before. We won’t trouble you any more just now, Bert.”
“So you say,” Smith grumbled and, carefully folding his precious document, wandered morosely into the dining-room.
Webley turned to Rua. “Look, Rua. You can see by what’s been said that we’ve got to keep hold of your grand-dad’s axe. We’ll give you a receipt for it. You’ll get it back all right.”
“It should not be touched. You do not understand. I myself, holding it, am now tapu.”
“Rua, Rua!” chided Mrs. Claire softly.
“Sergeant Webley,” said Falls, “please correct me if I am wrong, but suppose Mr. Te Kahu gave you his undertaking that when the adze is needed by the police he will allow them to have it? Could it not in the meantime be entrusted to the Colonel? The Colonel is your friend, Mr. Te Kahu, isn’t he? Suppose you went with him to his bank and left it there for safe-keeping? How would that be? Colonel, what do you say?”
“Eh?” said the Colonel. “Oh, certainly, if Webley agrees.”
“Sergeant?”
“I’ll be satisfied, sir.”
“Well, then?” Falls turned to Rua.
The old man looked at the weapon in his hands. “You will think it strange,” he said, “that I, who have in my time led my people towards the culture of the pakeha, should now grow quarrelsome over a silly savage notion. Perhaps in our old age we return to the paths of our forbears. The reason may put on new garments but the heart and the blood are constant. From the haft of the weapon there flows into my blood an influence darker and more potent than all the pakeha wisdom I have stored in my foolish old head. But, as you say, Colonel Claire is the friend of my people. To him I submit.”
Falls went into his room and came out with that heavily be-labelled case which Mrs. Claire had noticed on his arrival. He placed it open, upon the table, and Rua laid the adze in it.