they came together.  Again they shoved and strained, and the dust caked on the blood that covered them.  The ground beneath them that was dry, was now muddy from the trampled blood.  Then they swung their heads and struck, grunting at the blows, and stood apart, and came together, till the blood started from their ears.  Their breath came in gasps, and the silence was broken.  From their lips, all blood-covered, there came a moaning.  Ow aye, the moaning of a mother over her dead.  The heifers ran forward, then back; they ran round and galloped away, afraid—­galloped into the forest.

“In my heart, O white friend, I was sorry for the brothers.  The moaning was the cry of sorrow that one felt for the other.  ’O my brother, I must slay you,’ that was the meaning of the moaning.  Their tongues rolled out, swollen; their legs shook, their eyes were covered with mist.  Yet they swung their heads, and each time the horns were wet with blood, and the moaning came always.  Then they came together, and went on their knees.  Their muzzles were in the mud; their hind legs were wide apart.

“Ow aye, I looked away and saw the white eyes of the mother of the pack.  She was creeping up.  Her lips were wet; the hair on her neck stood up.  Behind her came others.  I gave the low growl of a lion—­ the cry he makes when he is angry at being disturbed.  She threw up her head and sniffed the air.  Then she growled in her throat, for there was no taint of lion in the air, but the taint of man!  Her white eyes found me out where I sat in a low tree, and there was death in them.  So I gathered the air in my lungs and shouted.  A man’s shout is as much dreaded as the lion’s roar.  The dogs jumped up, but the old mother called to them, and they crouched down.  The brothers stood moaning head to head.  I shouted again; I whistled.  Then the bulls drew apart.  One fell slowly on his side; the other smelt at the fallen one.  Then he tried to bellow, but his tongue was thick in his mouth.  The she-dog crept forward, and I whistled loud.  This time he flung up his head and looked around.  He saw the white eyes above the grass; he saw the round ears everywhere around.  Then he smelt at his brother.  Wow!  He smelt at him; he licked the blood from his nostrils.

“This is the law among the wild things—­when one is down he is down.  The weak are driven forth by their fellows; the hurt are left.  The bull smelt at his brother; then again he flung his head up to look at the white-eyed one, and he moved away for the vlei, moaning as he went.  The dogs let him pass; their eyes scarcely went to him, for they were fixed on the fallen.  They moved upon him in silence, a few steps at a time, then crouched with hanging tongues; then a few more steps; and as they closed in the fallen bull watched those he could see.  Meat for dogs!  He a chief in the forest, who could toss the largest dog the height of a tree!  Wow!  He gathered his hind feet under him and lifted.