to fly in numbers at a considerable height, I began to fire at them as
they flashed over me.

Now, in my age, I may say without fear of being set down a boaster, that
I have one gift, that of marksmanship, which, I suppose, I owe to some
curious combination of judgment, quickness of eye, and steadiness of
hand. I can declare honestly that in my best days I never knew a man
who could beat me in shooting at a living object; I say nothing of
target work, of which I have little experience. Oddly enough, also, I
believe that at this art, although then I lacked the practice which
since has come to me in such plenty, I was as good as a youth as I have
ever been in later days, and, of course, far better than I am now. This
I soon proved upon the present occasion, for seated there in that kloof,
after a few trials, I found that I could bring down quite a number of
even the swift, straight-flying rock pigeons as they sped over me, and
this, be it remembered, not with shot, but with a single bullet, a feat
that many would hold to be incredible.

So the days passed, and I practised, every evening finding me a little
better at this terribly difficult sport. For always I learned more as
to the exact capacities of my rifle and the allowance that must be made
according to the speed of the bird, its distance, and the complications
of the wind and of the light. During those days, also, I recovered so
rapidly that at the end of them I was almost in my normal condition, and
could walk well with the aid of a single stick.

At length the eventful Thursday came, and about midday--for I lay in bed
late that morning and did not shoot--I drove, or, rather, was driven, in
a Cape cart with two horses to the place known as Groote Kloof or Great
Gully. Over this gorge the wild geese flighted from their "pans" or