buffalo I will; that is unless the buffalo kills me, in which
case my blood will be on your hands."

I don't know why, but at that moment there came into my mind a
conviction that if he did go alone a buffalo or something would
kill him and that then I should be sorry all my life.

"They are dangerous brutes, much worse than lions," I said.

"And yet you, who pretend to have a conscience, would expose me
to their rage unprotected and alone," he replied with a twinkle
in his eye which I could see even by moonlight. "Oh! Quatermain,
how I have been mistaken in your character."

"Look here, Mr. Anscombe," I said, "it's no use. I cannot
possibly go on a shooting expedition with you just now. Only
to-day I have heard from Natal that my boy is not well and must
undergo an operation which will lay him up for quite six weeks,
and may be dangerous. So I must get down to Durban before it
takes place. After that I have a contract in Matabeleland whence
you have just come, to take charge of a trading store there for a
year; also perhaps to try to shoot a little ivory for myself. So
I am fully booked up till, let us say, October, 1878, that is for
about eighteen months, by which time I daresay I shall be dead."

"Eighteen months," replied this cool young man. "That will suit
me very well. I will go on to India as I intended, then home for
a bit and will meet you on the 1st of October, 1878, after which
we will proceed to the Lydenburg district and shoot those
buffalo, or if they have departed, other buffalo. Is it a