s former tone only into
one more horribly furious--

"It's _you_, is it? Whip be damned! I've something else for _you_."

And as he said this he drew a pistol from his coat, and hastily cocking
it, aimed it at my breast.

I was still on horseback and in motion, else he would no doubt have
delivered his fire at once; but my horse reared up at the gleam of the
pistol, and his body was thus interposed between mine and its muzzle.

As I have said, I had no weapon but the whip. Fortunately it was a
stout hunting-whip, with loaded butt. I hastily turned it in my hand,
and just as the hoofs of my horse came back to the earth, I drove the
spur so deeply into his ribs that he sprang forward more than his own
length. This placed me in the very spot I wanted to be--alongside my
ruffian antagonist, who, taken aback by my sudden change of position,
hesitated a moment before taking fresh aim. Before he could pull
trigger, the butt of my whip descended upon his skull, and doubled him
up in the dust! His pistol went off as he fell, and the bullet ploughed
up the ground between my horse's hoofs, but fortunately hit no one. The
weapon itself new out of his hand, and lay beside him where he had
fallen.

It was a mere lucky hit--all owing to the spur being touched, and my
horse having sprung forward in good time. Had I missed the blow, I
should not likely have had a second chance. The pistol was
double-barrelled, and on examination I found he carried another of a
similar kind.

He was now lying as still as if asleep, and I began to fear I had killed
him. This would have been a serious matter. Although perfectly
justifiable in me to have done so, who was to show that? The evidence
of those around me--the whole of them together--was not worth the
asseveration of one white man; and under the circumstances not worth a
straw. Indeed, considering what had immediately led to the rencontre,
such testimony would have been more likely to _damage_ my case than
otherwise! I felt myself in an awkward situation.

I now dismounted, and approached the prostrate form, around which the
blacks were congregating. They made way for me.

I knelt down and examined the head. It was cut and bleeding, but the
skull was still sound!

The knowledge of this fact set my mind at rest, and before I rose to my
feet I had the satisfaction to see that the fellow was coming to his
senses, under the influence of a douche of cold-water. The butt of