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Show PRINCESS MARY‘S GIFT BOOK MAGEI'A THE BUCK experience, is only dangerous when he aims at nothing, for then the \Vliat was I to do ? It was impossible for me to cross the river at that place, and long before I could get round by the ford all would be finished. I stood up on my rock and shouted to those brutes of Kailirs to this bullet looks after itself, and may catch you. To put a stop been have may -there natives friendly the of regiment a nuisance several lnmdred of thcm‘was directed to crOss the river and clear among the kloofs and rocks of the Zulu skirmishers who were hidden them. I watched them go olt‘in tine style. Towards evening some one told me that our nnpi. as he grandiloHaving at. the moment quently called it. was returning victorious. nothing else to do. I walked down to the riger at a pomt where the water was deep and the banks were high. Here I climbed to the top of a pile of boulders, whence with my field-glasses I could sweep a great extent of plain which stretched away on the Zululand side till at length it merged into hills and bush. Presently I saw some of our natives marching homcwards in a scattered and disorganised fashion, but evidently very proud of them- selves, for they were waving their assegais and singing scraps of warsongs. A few minutes later, a mile or more away, I caught sight of a man running. \Vatching him through the glasses I noted three things: first, s; that he was tall; secondly, that he ran with extraordinary swiftnes and. thirdly, that he had something tied upon his back. It was 73 to let the man alone. They were so excited that they did not hear my words; at least, they swore afterwards that they thought I was encouraging them to hunt him down. But Magcpa heard me. At that moment he seemed to be failing. but the sight of me appeared to give him fresh strength. He gathered himself together and leapt forward at a really surprising speed. Now the river was not more than three hundred yards away from him. and for the first two hundred of these he quite outdistanced his pursuers, although they were most of them young men and comparatively fresh. Then once more his strength began to fail. \Vatehing through the glasses I could see that his mouth was wide open, and that there was red foam upon his lips. The burden on his back was dragging him down. Once he lifted his hands as though to bow it; then with a wild gesture let them fall again. Two of the pursners who had outpaced the others crept up to himilank. lean men of not more than thirty years of age. They had stabbing spears in their hands. such as are used at close quarters, and these of course they did not throw. evident. further, that he had good reason to run, since he was being hunted by a number of our Kaffirs, of whom more and more continually joined in the chase. From every side they poured down upon him, them gained a little on the other. trying to cut him off and kill him, for as they got nearer I could see the assegais which they threw at him flash in the sunlight. him and coming up rapidly. One of Now Magepa was not more than fifty yards from the bank, with the first hunter about ten paces behind Magcpa glanced over his shoulder and saw, then put out his last strength. For Very soon I understood that the man was running with a definite forty yards he went like an arrow, running straight ax 'ay I from his pursuers, until he was within a few feet of the object and to a definite point; he was trying to reach the river. thought the sight very pitiful. this one poor creature being hunted to death by so many. Also I wondered why he did not free himself from bank, when he stumbled and fell. the bundle on his back, and came to the conclusion that he must be a witch-doctor, and that the bundle contained his precious charms or a rifle in my hand I think I would have stopped one or medicines. This was while he was yet a long way off, but when he came nearer. within three or four hundred yards, of a sudden I caught the outline of his face against a good background, and knew it for that of Magepa. " My God I" I said to myself, "it is old Magepa the Buck, and the bundle in the mat will be his grandson, Sinala I " Yes, even then I felt certain that he was carrying the child upon 1 liS back. "He's done," I said, and, upon my word, if I had both of those bloodhounds and taken the consequences. But, no I Just as the first man lifted his broad spear to stab him through the back on which the bundle lay, Magepa leapt up and wheeled round to take the thrust in his chest. Evidently he did not wish to be spcared in the back- nnwl MML h‘ \‘VR! |