Nahoon did not answer, but stared steadily at the trunks of two trees a
few paces in front of them and to their right. "Look," he whispered.
Hadden did so, and at length made out the outline of something brown
that was crouched behind the trees.
"He is dead," he exclaimed.
"No," answered Nahoon, "he has come back on his own path and is waiting
for us. He knows that we are following his spoor. Now if you stand
there, I think that you can shoot him through the back between the tree
trunks."
Hadden knelt down, and aiming very carefully at a point just below the
bull's spine, he fired. There was an awful bellow, and the next instant
the brute was up and at them. Nahoon flung his broad spear, which sank
deep into its chest, then they fled this way and that. The buffalo stood
still for a moment, its fore legs straddled wide and its head down,
looking first after the one and then the other, till of a sudden it
uttered a low moaning sound and rolled over dead, smashing Nahoon's
assegai to fragments as it fell.
"There! he's finished," said Hadden, "and I believe it was your assegai
that killed him.
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