so, I happened to look round at Harry, and perceived to my
astonishment that he had got his rifle to his shoulder.

"'You young donkey!' I exclaimed, 'surely you are not going to'--and
just at that moment the rifle went off.

"And then I think I saw what was in its way one of the most wonderful
things I ever remember in my hunting experience. The koodoo was at the
moment in the air, clearing a pile of stones with its fore-legs tucked
up underneath it. All of an instant the legs stretched themselves out
in a spasmodic fashion, it lit on them, and they doubled up beneath
it. Down went the noble buck, down upon his head. For a moment he
seemed to be standing on his horns, his hind-legs high in the air, and
then over he rolled and lay still.

"'Great Heavens!' I said, 'why, you've hit him! He's dead.'

"As for Harry, he said nothing, but merely looked scared, as well he
might, for such a marvellous, I may say such an appalling and ghastly
fluke it has never been my lot to witness. A man, let alone a boy,
might have fired a thousand such shots without ever touching the
object; which, mind you, was springing and bounding over rocks quite
five hundred yards away; and here this lad--taking a snap shot, and
merely allowing for speed and elevation by instinct, for he did not
put up his sights--had knocked the bull over as dead as a door-nail.
Well, I made no further remark, as the occasion was too solemn for
talking, but merely led the way to where the koodoo had fallen. There
he lay, beautiful and quite still; and there, high up, about half-way
down his neck, was a neat round hole. The bullet had severed the
spinal marrow, passing through the vertebræ and away on the other