arty
encamped for the night.

For some time, all hands were busy in gathering firewood and making
other preparations for their bivouac,--among which were the skinning and
cooking of the buffalo calf, duties that were assigned to the Bushman.
During his performance of them, the others, assisted by Congo as
interpreter, were extracting from the tall stranger a full account of
the adventure to which they were indebted for his presence in the camp;
and a strange story it was.

CHAPTER TEN.

MACORA.

In the manner of the African there was a certain hauteur which had not
escaped the observation of his hearers.

This was explained on their learning who and what he was; for his story
began by his giving a true and particular account of himself.

His name was Macora, and his rank that of a chief. His tribe belonged
to the great nation of the Makololo, though living apart, in a "kraal"
by themselves. The village, so-called, was at no great distance from
the spot where the hunters were now encamped.

The day before, he had come up the river in a canoe, accompanied by
three of his subjects. Their object was to procure a plant which grew
in that place,--from which the poison for arrows and spears is obtained.
In passing a shallow place in the river, they had attempted to kill a
hippopotamus which they saw walking about on the bottom of the stream,
like a buffalo browsing upon a plain. Rising suddenly to the surface,
the monster had capsized the canoe, and Macora was compelled to swim
ashore with the loss of a gun which once cost him eight elephant's
tusks.

He had seen nothing of his three companions, since parting with them in
the water.

On reaching the shore, and a few yards from the bank, he encountered a
herd of buffaloes, cows and young calves, on their way to the river.
These turned suddenly to avoid him, when a calf was knocked down by one
of the old ones, and so severely injured that it could not accompany the
rest in their flight. The mother, seeing her offspring left behind,
turned back and selected Macora as the object of her resentment. The
chief retreated towards the nearest tree, hotly pursued by the animal
eager to revenge the injury done to her young.

He was just in time to ascend among the branches as the cow came up.
The calf, with much difficulty, succeeded in reaching the tree. Once
there, it could not move away, and the mother would not leave it. This
accounted for Macora's having bee