A TALE OF THREE LIONS
Page: 22

off down the hill like a leaping rocket. I do not know what had
frightened it, certainly we had not. Perhaps a hyæna or a leopard--a
tiger as we call it there--had suddenly appeared; at any rate, off it
went, running slightly towards us, and I never saw a buck go faster. I
am afraid that forgetting Harry's presence I used strong language, and
really there was some excuse. As for Harry, he stood watching the
beautiful animal's course. Presently it vanished behind a patch of
bush, to emerge a few seconds later about five hundred paces from us,
on a stretch of comparatively level ground that was strewn with
boulders. On it went, clearing the boulders in its path with a
succession of great bounds that were beautiful to behold. As it did
so, I happened to look round at Harry, and perceived to my
astonishment that he had got his rifle to his shoulder.

"'You young donkey!' I exclaimed, 'surely you are not going to'--and
just at that moment the rifle went off.

"And then I think I saw what was in its way one of the most wonderful
things I ever remember in my hunting experience. The koodoo was at the
moment in the air, clearing a pile of stones with its fore-legs tucked
up underneath it. All of an instant the legs stretched themselves out
in a spasmodic fashion, it lit on them, and they doubled up beneath
it. Down went the noble buck, down upon his head. For a moment he
seemed to be standing on his horns, his hind-legs high in the air, and
then over he rolled and lay still.

"'Great Heavens!' I said, 'why, you've hit him! He's dead.'

"As for Harry, he said nothing, but merely looked scared, as well he
might, for such a marvellous, I may say such an appalling and ghastly
fluke it has never been my lot to witness. A man, let alone a boy,
might have fired a thousand such shots without ever touching the
object; which, mind you, was springing and bounding over rocks quite
five hundred yards away; and here this lad--taking a snap shot, and
merely allowing for speed and elevation by instinct, for he did not
put up his sights--had knocked the bull over as dead as a door-nail.
Well, I made no further remark, as the occasion was too solemn for