r or so, and were, perhaps, a mile or more from the site
of our camping-place, when we discovered the spoor of a solitary bull
buffalo mixed up with the spoor of Hans, and were able, from various
indications, to make out that he had been tracking the buffalo. At
length we reached a little glade in which there grew a stunted old
mimosa thorn, with a peculiar and overhanging formation of root, under
which a porcupine, or an ant-bear, or some such animal, had hollowed
out a wide-lipped hole. About ten or fifteen paces from this thorn-tree
there was a thick patch of bush.

"'See, Macumazahn! see!' said Mashune, excitedly, as we drew near the
thorn; 'the buffalo has charged him. Look, here he stood to fire at him;
see how firmly he planted his feet upon the earth; there is the mark of
his crooked toe (Hans had one bent toe). Look! here the bull came like
a boulder down the hill, his hoofs turning up the earth like a hoe. Hans
had hit him: he bled as he came; there are the blood spots. It is all
written down there, my father--there upon the earth.'

"'Yes,' I said; 'yes; but _where is Hans?_'

"Even as I said it Mashune clutched my arm, and pointed to the stunted
thorn just by us. Even now, gentlemen, it makes me feel sick when I
think of what I saw.

"For fixed in a stout fork of the tree some eight feet from the ground
was Hans himself, or rather his dead body, evidently tossed there by the
furious buffalo. One leg was twisted round the fork, probably in a dying
convulsion. In the side, just beneath the ribs, was a great hole, from
which the entrails protruded. But this was not all. The other leg hung
down to within five feet of the ground. The skin and most of the flesh
were gone from it. For a moment we stood aghast, and gazed at this
horrifying sight. Then I understood what had happened. The buffalo, with
that devilish cruelty which distinguishes the animal, had, after his
enemy was dead, stood underneath his body, and licked the flesh off
the pendant leg with his file-like tongue. I had heard of such a thing
before, but had always treated the stories as hunters' yarns; but I had
no doubt about it now. Poor Hans' skeleton foot and ankle were an ample
proof.

"We stood aghast under the tree, and stared and stared at this awful
sight, when suddenly our cogitations were interrupted in a painful
manner. The thick bush about fifteen paces off burst asunder with a
crashing sound, and uttering a series of ferocious pig-lik