puttees.

"Nara Gilul him stop till we come back," suggested the corporal of his
section in answer to Dudley's question as to what was to be done. "Him
'ab rifle an' ammunition. Him lib to take care ob himsel'. Berry much
him fault."

"That won't do, corporal," said Wilmshurst. "We must send him back.
Take five men with you. It will be only two hours' trek."

Accordingly the Haussas set to work to make a stretcher, performing the
task with wonderful celerity. They were on the point of lifting the
helpless man when the shout was raised.

"Bush-cow, him come!"

"Take cover, all of you!" shouted the subaltern, loath to hamper his
task by additional casualties.

The Haussas obeyed with one exception--Bela Moshi.

The sergeant, slipping a clip into the magazine, stood right in the
centre of the path along which the second bush-cow was tearing, eager
to avenge its mate.

Wilmshurst made no further attempt to order Beta Moshi to take refuge.
He realised that to do so would flurry the imperturbable sergeant, but
he was entirely at a loss to understand why the Haussa was apparently
courting disaster in precisely the same way as the luckless Nara Gilul
had done.

A rifle bolt clicked in the bush on the sergeant's flank.

"Unload!" he hissed, knowing that the risk he ran from an excited man
with a loaded rifle was greater than that confronting him.

At a terrific pace the bush-cow bore down. Twenty yards from the
motionless man the brute lowered its head. In that position its vision
was obscured by the thick tufts of long hair. Having taken its final
"sighting position" the animal relied upon its momentum to achieve the
destruction of its human enemy.

The moment the bush-cow lowered its head Bela Moshi, with every sense
on the alert, leapt sideways behind a tree. Then, as the infuriated
quadruped thundered past, the Haussa brought his rifle to the shoulder
and fired.

Thirty yards further the bush-cow dropped and died with a bullet
through its heart, while the victor, grinning as only a black can grin,
strode magnificently up to his victim and planted one foot upon the
quivering carcass.

The injured man having been sent back and the carcasses of the two
animals dragged aside--they would provide excellent meat if the task of
sun drying the flesh was not unduly delayed--the march was resumed,
until on gaining the summit of a low hill the wings of the broken-down
seaplane were visible as they rose obliq