She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
page 146 of 362 (40%)
page 146 of 362 (40%)
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proceeded to creep as near to him as I could. He let me come within
eighty yards, and then turned his head, and stared at me, preparatory to running away. I lifted the rifle, and taking him about midway down the shoulder, for he was side on to me, fired. I never made a cleaner shot or a better kill in all my small experience, for the great buck sprang right up into the air and fell dead. The bearers, who had all halted to see the performance, gave a murmur of surprise, an unwonted compliment from these sullen people, who never appear to be surprised at anything, and a party of the guard at once ran off to cut the animal up. As for myself, though I was longing to have a look at him, I sauntered back to my litter as though I had been in the habit of killing eland all my life, feeling that I had gone up several degrees in the estimation of the Amahagger, who looked on the whole thing as a very high-class manifestation of witchcraft. As a matter of fact, however, I had never seen an eland in a wild state before. Billali received me with enthusiasm. "It is wonderful, my son the Baboon," he cried; "wonderful! Thou art a very great man, though so ugly. Had I not seen, surely I would never have believed. And thou sayest that thou wilt teach me to slay in this fashion?" "Certainly, my father," I said airily; "it is nothing." But all the same I firmly made up my mind that when "my father" Billali began to fire I would without fail lie down or take refuge behind a tree. After this little incident nothing happened of any note till about an hour and a half before sundown, when we arrived beneath the shadow of |
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