"His shoulder caught me as he passed."
ROUND THE CAMP-FIRE.
IV.—A FIGHT WITH A RHINOCEROS.
(Concluded from page [131].)
The tragedy (continued Vandeleur) took place after the rhinoceros adventure, but shall be told before it.
After a fortnight Umkopo was quite himself again, and began to go about with me on my hunting expeditions into the veldt. At the end of a month something happened which suddenly ended our relations for the time being. One day, as I sat at dinner, I heard shoutings outside the camp, and the sounds of quarrelling among the native attendants. Presently a man was brought into the zareeba, apparently unconscious; four men carried him, and a fifth—Umkopo—followed the procession, looking dark and forbidding; evidently in the worst of humours.
The wounded man was Billy, and the other four Kaffirs brought his unconscious form and laid him close to me, every man speaking at the same time, endeavouring to explain what had happened.
It seemed that Billy had somehow offended Umkopo, who had straightway fallen upon him with his knob-kerri.