Venning sniggered.

“You can’t mean it, sir,” said Compton.

“It’s true enough,” said the Hunter, solemnly.  “I was passing the acts, as it were, without paying much attention when the women clapped their hands.  ‘What was that last law?’ I said to the chief councillor, whose duty it is to keep the laws in his mind.  ’The great chief,’ he said, ’will take to himself two wives at the full moon.’  ‘I repeal that act,’ I said; but they would not understand.  A law was a law when it became a law, and no one could alter it, but considering my position they would build my hut for me.  And, as you see, they are building it.”

He stared gloomily down into the valley; while Venning and Compton made singular grimaces in the effort to keep becomingly grave.

“It is a great honour,” said Compton, presently.

“And two of them!” said Venning.  “I don’t know, I’m sure.  I’m no lawyer, but I rather think that you, as an Englishman, would not be allowed to take two.  Polygamy would become bigamy.”

“I never thought of that,” said the Hunter, brightening up.

“On the other hand,” went on Venning, with a judicial air, “as you have been sworn in as a member of the clan, you become of course amenable to the laws, and it may be that two wives will not meet the requirements of your exalted rank.”

Mr. Hume leant forward, and caught Venning by the ear.

“It is no joking matter,” he went on.  “When will the moon be at the full?”

“In three weeks from to-day,” said Compton, grinning.

“Then before that we must be well away, or we may find ourselves life prisoners.  Have you made any discovery to-day?”

“None!  We were ‘shadowed,’ as before, by boys.”

“So.  Well, I will take measures to-morrow to put an end to this spying.  They have had their fun out of me as chief, but I will have my turn.”

Next day the vice-chief had his turn.  He declared the next three days to be a period of work.  Some of the men were to build a boom across the river in the defile, others were to construct a stone wall across the gorge leading from the Deadman’s Pool; while he started the women and children on a new set of huts, having condemned the old village as unfit for habitation.  Further, he passed a law that any man, woman, or child found wandering about idle during the three days, would have to pass a night on the banks of the “tabooed” pool tied to a tree; and, finally, he appointed himself and the two sub-chiefs, the Young Lion and the Spider, as overseers, with right to appoint substitutes in their place.

“Those be the new laws,” he said, in a roar, when the astounded council had listened to the end.  “If any one disputes them, I will tie them head to heels and throw them into the river to learn wisdom.”

No one so much as murmured, for they did not like the look of those yellow eyes.

“Then see that ye begin your appointed work at sunrise,” he said, “for I will make medicine to see these laws are obeyed.”