noon
The two young men , following this track at a run , found that it brought them , at the end of a mile or so , to the chief _ kainga _ , or village , of the Aohanga Maoris . `` It looks as if we had run our fox to earth , '' cried Fred exultingly , as they made for the gateway of the high wooden stockade -- relic of the old fighting days -- which surrounded the _ kainga _ . The Maoris within the _ kainga _ met them with sullen looks , for their soreness of feeling over the Government surveys now going on in their district had made them unfriendly to white faces . But it was impossible to doubt that they were speaking truth when , in answer to Hugh 's anxious questioning , they declared that no _ pakeha _ -LRB- white man -RRB- had been near the _ kainga _ , and that they had seen nothing of Horoeka , their _ tohunga _ , since noon that day . They suggested indifferently that the white boy must have lost himself in the bush , and , at the same time , gave a sullen refusal to assist in searching for him . Before the two young men wrathfully turned their backs on the _ kainga _ , Hugh , who had a very fair knowledge of the Maori tongue , warned the natives that the _ pakeha _ law would punish them severely if they knowingly allowed his young brother to be harmed . But they only replied with insolent laughter .