im, Nelson?--who beat the French into frothed
eggs and died to live for ever. He was small, too, they say, and weak in
the stomach."

I must confess I do not think that praise ever sounded sweeter in my
ears than did these words of the Commandant Retief, uttered as they were
just when I felt crushed to the dirt. Moreover, as I saw by Marie's and,
I may add, by my father's face, there were other ears to which they were
not ungrateful. The Boers also, brave and honest men enough, evidently
appreciated them, for they said:

"Ja! ja! das ist recht" (That is right).

Only Pereira turned his broad back and busied himself with relighting
his pipe, which had gone out.

Then Retief began again.

"What is it you were calling us to listen to, Mynheer Pereira? That this
Heer Allan Quatermain had offered to shoot you a match? Well, why not?
If he can hit Kaffirs running at him with spears, as he has done, he may
be able to hit other things also. You say that you won't rob him of his
money--no, it was his beautiful horse--because you have taken so many
prizes shooting at targets. But did _you_ ever hit a Kaffir running at
_you_ with an assegai, mynheer, you who live down there where everything
is safe? If so, I never heard of it."

Pereira answered that he did not understand me to propose a shooting
match at Kaffirs charging with assegais, but at something else--he knew
not what.

"Quite so," said Retief. "Well, Mynheer Allan, what is it that you do
propose?"

"That we should stand in the great kloof between the two _vleis_
yonder--the Heer Marais knows the place--when the wild geese flight over
an hour before sunset, and that he who brings down six of them in the
fewest shots shall win the match."

"If our guns are loaded with loopers that will not be difficult," said
Pereira.

"With loopers you would seldom kill a bird, mynheer," I replied, "for
they come over from seventy to a hundred yards up. No, I mean with
rifles."

"Allemachte!" broke in a Boer; "you will want plenty of ammunition to
hit a goose at that height with a bullet."

"That is my offer," I said, "to which I add this, that when twenty shots
have been fired by each man, he who has killed the most birds wins, even
if he has not brought down the full six. Does the Heer Pereira accept?
If so, I will venture to match myself against him, although he has won
so many prizes."

The Heer Pereira seemed extremely doubtful; so doubtful, indeed, that
the Boers b