ar well to the right, for here
you are in danger."

I could not tell what the danger might be, but thought it best to take
his advice. As he trotted away from me I fastened up my pack again and
slung it on my back, and almost instantly I saw what the danger was. Out
from a dip of the land which had concealed them came a herd of about
twenty wild cattle. Their size was enormous. The leader, a white bull,
scented or sighted me and charged at once towards me. There was but one
thing to do. I gripped a low bough and easily swung myself up into the
tree, even in the moment of my activity speculating how long I should be
kept there and what would happen to the overseer who had spoken to me
and was now scarcely a hundred yards distant. The bull paced round and
round the tree, pawing the earth and striking the trunk with his great
horns. From my perch I could see that the overseer now stood still. He
had slipped one hand out of the boot and now grasped that aluminium rod.
At that moment the bull sighted him and charged him. The rest of the
herd waited huddled and motionless.

When the bull was within about twenty yards of him the overseer raised
his hand and pointed that rod towards the beast. There was a flash as of
lightning, a loud crackling sound, and the bull rolled over stone dead.
The rest of the herd turned tail and galloped off in panic. Without a
word to me the overseer replaced the rod in his boot and went on his
way.

I could understand now how one of these beings could easily control a
gang of thirty or more of the second-class labourers, and could ensure
punctual and complete obedience. Yet, grateful though I was to this
overseer, I regarded the beings of his type more with wonder than with
admiration. They were a selfish and sterile race. Their mode of walking
suggested to me too vividly things that I had seen in the great
ape-house in Regent's Park. Physically they were not, according to our
notions, to be compared with the second class whom they controlled.
Those that I saw of the second class were all men of fine stature. Their
skins were darker than the European and of a reddish brown. Their faces
were handsome, gloomy, and sombre. They seemed more akin to me than did
this four-legged thing with the monstrous head and the death-dealing rod
in his boot. But as yet I had spoken to no being of the second class. As
I passed through the cultivated fields I was all the time under the eyes
of the overseers, and d