We went on for a mile or more without seeing or hearing anything. Then we came to a little mound, perhaps twenty feet in height, whose top gave us a view over the bushes for quite a distance. We ascended the mound and took a careful survey, knowing that if any buffaloes were in range of the spot we could not easily miss them.
Not a buffalo was in sight, but there was visible, two or three hundred yards away, a hunter with tracker and gun-bearer. I looked very carefully at the hunter, and speedily saw that it was none of our party. As the stranger came nearer I perceived that it was not the fair one whom I met the day before, but was dressed in precisely the same manner, and the movements and general appearance told me it was a woman.
"Aha!" I said to myself, "I think I am about to meet Mrs. Roberts. Miss Boland is at the camp with a headache—no, let me think! Africa is no place for headaches such as women complain of in civilized lands. Perhaps the two are hunting together, and are working the buffalo-herd from opposite sides. She continues to come this way, so I presume she has no objection to meeting me. Miss Boland evidently gave me a good character when she got back to camp. Perhaps she didn't mention me at all; may have considered the incident, and the man, too trivial to refer to. However, I'll descend from the mound and meet the lady, who quite likely will ask if I've seen any buffaloes belonging to her."
I descended from the mound and moved in the direction of the stranger. I saluted respectfully, raising my hat as I did so, and remarking that it was a fine day for hunting. What a blessing the weather is for breaking the ice in a conversation!
"Yes," was the response of the stranger, "it is a fine day for hunting, or for a promenade, and what more agreeable promenade can there be than in the forest at this time?"
"I certainly know of nothing to surpass it," I replied, "and it is my fondness for the sport that brought me to this part of the world. But let me come from generalities to particulars: have you wounded a buffalo this morning?"
"Yes," was the reply, "I have killed one and wounded another. I'm afraid I'm not a first-class shot, as I ought to have brought down the last buffalo I fired at; he was not more than twenty yards away, and I had an excellent chance at him."
"What did you aim for?"
"I tried to aim just back of the right foreshoulder, but from the way he went off I don't think I hit him there; perhaps did not hit him at all."
"It is my pleasure to inform you," said I, "that your game is secure. I heard your shot, and a little while afterward a buffalo came in my direction. He came crashing through the bushes, and charged directly at me. I was fortunate enough to be able to bring him down—fortunate in more ways than one, as he would have brought me down with a vengeance if I had not done so."