ll the blood started from their ears.
Their breath came in gasps, and the silence was broken. From their
lips, all blood-covered, there came a moaning. Ow aye, the moaning
of a mother over her dead. The heifers ran forward, then back; they
ran round and galloped away, afraid--galloped into the forest.

"In my heart, O white friend, I was sorry for the brothers. The
moaning was the cry of sorrow that one felt for the other. 'O my
brother, I must slay you,' that was the meaning of the moaning.
Their tongues rolled out, swollen; their legs shook, their eyes were
covered with mist. Yet they swung their heads, and each time the
horns were wet with blood, and the moaning came always. Then they
came together, and went on their knees. Their muzzles were in the
mud; their hind legs were wide apart.

"Ow aye, I looked away and saw the white eyes of the mother of the
pack. She was creeping up. Her lips were wet; the hair on her neck
stood up. Behind her came others. I gave the low growl of a lion--
the cry he makes when he is angry at being disturbed. She threw up
her head and sniffed the air. Then she growled in her throat, for
there was no taint of lion in the air, but the taint of man! Her
white eyes found me out where I sat in a low tree, and there was
death in them. So I gathered the air in my lungs and shouted. A
man's shout is as much dreaded as the lion's roar. The dogs jumped
up, but the old mother called to them, and they crouched down. The
brothers stood moaning head to head. I shouted again; I whistled.
Then the bulls drew apart. One fell slowly on his side; the other
smelt at the fallen one. Then he tried to bellow, but his tongue was
thick in his mouth. The she-dog crept forward, and I whistled loud.
This time he flung up his head and looked around. He saw the white
eyes above the grass; he saw the round ears everywhere around. Then
he smelt at his brother. Wow! He smelt at him; he licked the blood
from his nostrils.

"This is the law among the wild things--when one is down he is down.
The weak are driven forth by their fellows; the hurt are left. The
bull smelt at his brother; then again he flung his head up to look
at the white-eyed one, and he moved away for the vlei, moaning as he
went. The dogs let him pass; their eyes scarcely went to him, for
they were fixed on the fallen. They moved upon him in silence, a few
steps at a time, then crouched with hanging tongues; then a few more
steps; and as they closed i