ised in the use of firearms,
for on rare and happy occasions when he had visited at the country place
of a distant relative he had been taught and encouraged to shoot, and he
was passionately fond of the sport. But his opportunities, alas, had
been few and far between.

The air-gun was a good one of its kind, and up to a certain distance
shot true and hard. The Zulu boy had seen it among the wares of a
travelling pedlar during one of his solitary wanderings, and had
purchased it for five shillings, it having probably been stolen in the
first instance. He had hidden it craftily away, with an eye to just
such an adventure as this.

Haviland put in a pellet and fired at nothing in particular. Even the
slight twang as he pulled the trigger seemed quite loud in the midnight
stillness; but he felt that it would hit hard.

They stole along in the shadow of a hedgerow, Haviland carrying the gun.
A covert loomed darkly in front of them. As they entered it
stealthily, the flap-flap of startled wood-pigeons set their nerves all
tingling, for would not a tale be thereby conveyed in the event of
keepers being abroad?

But alas for their reckoning! It was the wrong time of year for
night-poaching. The foliage was so thick that they could see nothing.
Every tree might have been weighted with roosting pheasants for all the
sport that fact would afford them. For some time they went round and
round the copse, looking upward, and were just going to give it up
when--there in a young ash of scanty leafage, they made out two dark
balls silhouetted against the moonlit sky. Controlling his excitement,
Haviland took careful aim and pressed the trigger. There was a thud, a
flapping of wings, and one of the dark balls fell to earth with a louder
thud. There lay at their feet a splendid cock-pheasant. The Zulu boy
promptly ended its struggles by a tap on the head with his stick.

"Shoot again," he whispered. "Shoot again."

Now at ordinary times Haviland's sporting instincts were far too true to
allow him to find much satisfaction in shooting birds on the roost. But
here the night adventure, the secrecy and risk, and, further, the skill
required to pick off a bird with a single pellet, and that in a very
uncertain light, all went to render the situation intensely exciting.
Again he raised the weapon and took careful aim, with the same result as
before. Mpukuza capered with delight.

"That enough for to-night," he whispered.