to their horses'
flanks and dashed forward to meet the bellowing foe. To see those nine
men fearlessly charge the rushing herd was a distinctly thrilling sight;
for none knew better than they the implacably savage nature of the
brutes they were about to contend with, or the deadliness of the peril
to which they were so light-heartedly exposing themselves. Yet not one
of them manifested the slightest disposition to shirk the encounter:
possibly they all knew that to perish upon the horns of a buffalo would
be preferable to the punishment that surely awaited them should they
disgrace themselves and their king by showing fear in the presence of a
white man. But if the riders scorned to exhibit fear, the horses were
animated by no such scruples, for when they had approached to within
about two hundred feet of the charging buffalo, the low, fierce,
grunting bellows, the blazing eyes, and the sharp, threatening horns of
the latter seemed to strike such panic into them that suddenly, as
though by concerted arrangement, they wheeled sharply round, and,
despite their riders' utmost efforts, bolted ignominiously in all
directions.

I had by this time succeeded in recharging my rifle, and, slipping on a
fresh cap, I raised the piece to my shoulder and held myself ready to
shoot upon the instant that I dared do so without the risk of hitting a
Basuto, for a tragedy seemed imminent. But Moshesh, who was now with
difficulty restraining his own mount from bolting, stopped me.

"Wait, white man, and watch!" he enjoined me; and as the words passed
his lips I saw the nine warriors throw themselves very cleverly from the
backs of their bolting horses, wheel round as upon a pivot, and dash
back until they were immediately in the path of the furious buffalo,
which seemed now to have marked down as their destined victims the
little body of men of whom the king and I formed a part. In the
twinkling of an eye each warrior had selected one buffalo in particular
as his own especial foe, and had planted himself with uplifted bangwan
square in the brute's path, while the buffalo, promptly accepting the
challenge, responded to it with fierce bellows and savage flourishings
of the terrible horns. Three breathless seconds later the leading
buffalo, with head lowered and slightly turned to allow of a more
effective thrust of the sharp, upturned point of its murderous horn, was
upon his antagonist, and I caught my breath sharply, fully expecting