"No," said I, "I cannot; but I must and I shall." I put away her arm
from me, but in turn she caught up the rifle. Even for this I was still
too proud. "No," said I, "I have always carried my own weapons thus
far."

"Come, then," she said, "this way"; and so caught the muzzle of the
heavy barrel and walked on, leaving me the stock to support for my share
of the weight. Thus we carried the great rifle between us, and so
stumbled on, until at length the sun grew too warm for me, and I
dropped, overcome with fatigue. Patiently she waited for me, and so we
two, partners, mates, a man and a woman, primitive, the first, went on
little by little.

I knew that the bull would in all likelihood stop near the rivulet, for
his progress seemed to indicate that he was very old or else wounded.
Finally I could see his huge black hump standing less than a quarter of
a mile away from the ridge where I last paused. I motioned to her, and
she crept to my side, like some desert creature. We were hunting animals
now, the two sexes of Man--nothing more.

"Go," said I, motioning toward the rifle. "I am too weak. I might miss.
I can get no farther."

She caught up the rifle barrel at its balancing point, looked to the
lock as a man might have done, and leaned forward, eager as any man for
the chase. There was no fear in her eye.

"Where shall I shoot it?" she whispered to me, as though it might
overhear her.

"At the life, at the bare spot where his shoulder rubs, very low down,"
I said to her. "And when you shoot, drop and He still. He will soon lie
down."

Lithe, brown, sinuous, she crept rapidly away, and presently was hid
where the grass grew taller in the flat beyond. The bull moved forward a
little also, and I lost sight of both for what seemed to me an
unconscionable time. She told me later that she crept close to the water
hole and waited there for the bull to come, but that he stood back and
stared ahead stupidly and would not move. She said she trembled when at
last he approached, so savage was his look. Even a man might be smitten
with terror at the fierce aspect of one of these animals.

But at last I heard the bitter crack of the rifle and, raising my head,
I saw her spring up and then drop down again. Then, staggering a short
way up the opposite slope, I saw the slow bulk of the great black bull.
He turned and looked back, his head low, his eyes straight ahead. Then
slowly he kneeled down, and so died, with his forefee