e down to the
water's edge. He had a gun at his shoulder covering them
all, and they headed their horses up-stream and halted to
hear him speak.

"He was prideful and contemptuous. 'Six of you,' he cried,
'no less than six, who have come out to kill one man, and
the whole lot bottled up in the middle of a ditch and
waiting to be shot. The first one that moves his rifle till
I give permission dies.'

"Not one of them answered, but all kept their eyes on him.
Old Mynheer van der Poel had a cartridge in his rifle, and
he touched his horse with the spur under water that it
might fidget round towards the Englishman.

"'Well,' said the man on the bank, 'if I shot each one of
you as you sit, I should be in my right, and not one could
blame me. But where I come from one does not shoot even a
duck sitting, and I am going to let you go. You shall have
a chance to do the thing decently, so come back and fight
me openly. Or,' and he laughed as he spoke, 'you can do it
another way. I am leaving this cursed country shortly with
Christina. See if you can get at me and kill me before
then. It's a fair offer; but I warn you you'll find it a
dangerous game, and there'll be blood-letting on the one
side or the other.'

"He drew back his horse a little, still covering them with
the rifle. 'Now,' he cried, 'drop your guns into the water,
and you can go. Drop them, I say!'

"One by one the young men let their rifles fall into the
stream; but the old father fumbled with his finger.
Suddenly there was a shot, and the Englishman's big horse
shied at the spurt of mud at his feet. Of course the old
man could not shoot without aiming.

"Then the Englishman brought round his gun, and the old
man, sitting on his horse, with the water streaming over
his saddle, knew that a tremble of the finger would send
him to God.

"'But that you are Christina's father,' said the
Englishman, in a voice as clear as falling pebbles, 'I
would put a bullet through your white head this minute.
This time, though, you shall go alive, but by--! you shall
have your ducking.'

"And dropping his muzzle, he suddenly shot the straining
horse through the head, so that it fell immediately, and
the old man was plunged out of sight in the rushing water.

"When he got to the bank, fifty yards down the stream, the
Englishman was gone.

"They went home soberly, all busy with thoughts of their
own. When they neared the home kraals the father spoke.

"'This is a b