It was a great relief to Henare's troubled mind to get his letter to the Kaiser written, and sent off by its famous postman; in his native simplicity he felt that he had dealt the German Emperor a blow from which that old Fritz would not quickly recover. He had told him as plainly as possible what a Maori soldier thought of him, and that of course would affect the Kaiser's "morale."

The incident also got him talked about, until his resourcefulness and bravery came under the notice of the authorities, with the result that Henare was made a Corporal; which fact he duly mentioned in a postscript to some of his letters—with pardonable pride.

He now became more zealous and daring than ever, making quite a business [pg33] of the war. He was turning out to be one of the best soldiers in the British line; an encouragement and inspiration to all about him.

But his zeal and daring often nearly cost him his life, and eventually cost him his liberty. It happened during a most unexpected gas attack. Henare lingered too long, was overcome by the poisonous fumes, and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

He was not badly gassed, so when he recovered enough to walk about he wanted to fight one of the guards, but a London Tommy restrained him. Henare appeared to be the first Maori prisoner captured by the Germans, for they regarded him with a good deal of interest, which he resented with expressions that were wasted on his captors.

He soon chummed up with his fellow-prisoner—the London Tommy, who urged [pg34] him to be less talkative, so as to avoid trouble. But, as Henare could not indulge in his favourite pastime of "letter writing," he persisted in talking to Tommy about the war. He told him wonderful stories about gigantic preparations on the British front, and about the inexhaustible resources of New Zealand.

Several of the sentries understood English and Henare was listened to with undisguised interest. Then he was sent for, and taken between two guards to a German officer, who was very affable to Henare, and asked him several kindly and interesting questions. Had he quite recovered from his unfortunate "gassing"? Did he get enough to eat? Was it the kind of food the Maoris were used to? and so on.

After this the officer told the guards to withdraw twenty paces. He then smiled at Henare and asked him, in broken English, whether he would like plenty of [pg35] money and a certain amount of freedom during his stay in Germany.

Henare grinned and said that would be "kapai."

"Vell, you shust tell me some leedle tings about der English."

"All right, I know plenty ting about him. What yer want ter know?"

"Ah! dot is goot! Now tell me how much damage der German bombs do on London."

"Wery bad, wery bad. Him brake down te shop, te church, te school, and te piccanini."

"Och! anyting else?"

"Yeh; kill te plenty ole woman too; my word yeh, te Zepp wery bad for ole Englan."

"Haf England got much food?"

[pg36] "Not too many; only butter from Noo Zeelan."

The officer made a note of that, as a most significant fact. He then asked:

"How many soldiers vos coming from New Zealand efery mont?"

"Oh, tousan an tousan. Not enuf ship yet to bring him all."

"How many Maoris vos der bein trained?"

"Oh, bout two million, I tink."

"Gott in himmel! Are dey as big as you?"

Henare grinned and said:

"Oh, te Maori bigger 'n me. Me te little bloke, all right. No room for te big Maori on te ole troopship I came in."

The German looked thoughtful, and a bit suspicious.

"Are you telling me der truth?"

[pg37] Henare fixed his soft brown eyes on the small blue-grey eyes of his questioner, and said, with well-feigned indignation:

"Oh, py korry, me te Sunday School poy; what for you tink me tell a lie?"

"Vell, I will ask you von more question:

"Vat do all dose big Maoris feed on?"

"Oh, te Pakeha no let te Maori eat up te prisoner now, so he eat te poaka."

"Vat is der poaka?"

"Te pig, te Sher——, I mean te Noo Zeelan pig. But te Maori like te prisoner more better."

Although the German officer was not at all satisfied with the result of his enquiries, he made up his mind to treat Henare well, with the object of getting all the information possible from him.

[pg38]