ushed with the feeling of
the thorough sportsman, that life could hardly contain better moments
than this.

"_Inkosikazi_!" ejaculated old Undhlawafa admiringly. "_Mame_! A
wonder!"

They went over to the fallen animal, which lay motionless and stone
dead. It was even as her father had said; Verna's bullet had drilled
clean through the heart of the mighty beast--a neat and sportsmanlike
shot as ever was delivered.

"_That_ pair of horns'll stand us in for close on a hundred pounds,"
pronounced Ben Halse. "Why, they must be the world's record! I never
saw any to come up to them in all my experience."

"So the world's record has been accounted for by only a girl," said
Verna merrily. "But you were a darling to let me have first shot."

"Oh, as to that I was afraid you'd miss--women are so nervy and
excitable."

"Especially this woman!"

"Well, it doesn't much matter who fired the shot, the point is we've got
the horns, and they'll be worth quite what I said, if not more."

"Father, I'm ashamed of you. That's a nice sportsmanlike way of
talking, isn't it?"

The other Zulus had now crowded up, and were firing off many
ejaculations of amazement and admiration. It is possible that some of
them remembered the occasion on which the bullet hole had been drilled
in the wall of Ben Halse's store. The butchery part of it devolved upon
them. But this was a form of amusement they thoroughly enjoyed, and,
moreover, they would have a big meat feast. The larger kind of buck,
with the exception, perhaps, of the eland, is apt to be coarse and
tasteless, and except for the more delicate part of this one, such as
the saddle, Ben Halse wanted none. He, however, waited to see that the
head, with its invaluable pair of horns, was properly taken care of. So
they went to work merrily, and in an incredibly short space of time the
carcase was duly quartered, and a big fire was lighted and a big roast
started, by way of a preliminary, for there was no chance of
interruption. There was nothing on earth to draw a patrol of that fine
corps the Natal Police into the depths of the Lumisana forest at that
ungodly hour of the night, short of very strong and very definite
"information received." Ben Halse and Verna, after their hours of
tramping and the tension of waiting, took their share of the roast with
keen and healthy appetites.

"Oh, I love this!" said the latter, cutting into a strip of the hissing
grill with a pocket-k