n the fallen bull watched those he could
see. Meat for dogs! He a chief in the forest, who could toss the
largest dog the height of a tree! Wow! He gathered his hind feet
under him and lifted. Slowly he reached his feet, and the white-eyed
mother ran in open-mouthed. She gripped the sinews of his hind leg
and held on. The pack crowded in. Haw! It was no fight. The bull
looked after his brother, who was slowly moving to the vlei, moaning
as he went. Then, but for a little time, he fought as a chief should
fight when his foes are on him. With a swing of his head here, and a
swing there, he stove in the ribs of two of the pack; then he sprang
on another, flung him, as a boy would a stone, into the air, watched
him go up, watched him come down, then flung him up again, and fell
forward on his knees with his nose on the ground, and the pack
snapped the flesh from him in mouthfuls. The other bull turned not
at the howling of the pack. He walked on slow and straight to the
vlei, drank deep, and made a bed in the mud. He covered his wounds
with mud, and when his wounds were healed he was an outcast. The
troop had another leader, and the old cow led them all to another
grazing-ground."

"And what became of you, Muata?"

"Muata stayed in the tree. Mawoh! Muata was afraid. The mother of
the pack had not forgotten. Even while she ate she looked at him,
and when the milk-mothers with their young came to the forest,
having been called, she lay off and watched, with her evil eyes on
me. The jackals, smelling blood, howled, sitting on their haunches,
and a lion came up growling in his throat. But he did not come right
up; he stood a way off, watching, and presently he stretched
himself on his stomach to wait. Haw! Even the lion will not attempt
to drive the pack from its kill. Ow aye, it is so. The old mother
never turned her eyes to watch the lion, but when the pups played,
having eaten their fill, she stood up. The pack looked at her and
moved off; then the lion rose and came forward. The old one stood
her ground, and the great one, when he was within three bounds of
her, also stood. The white eyes turned away from the yellow eyes--
they turned to me; then she yapped and went off after the pack. The
lion looked after her; then he stretched himself on the ground again
and stared. He lifted his head to the wind and sniffed. Mawoh! Well,
I knew the old mother had told him of my presence; but the lion
never looks up. It was well for