I pretended to look at the ground, and cocked my rifle, being determined that if he spoke it, it should be his last.

Hans stared upwards--I suppose to avoid the sight of death--then suddenly uttered a wild yell, which caused everyone, even the doomed people, to turn their eyes to him.

He was pointing to the heavens, and they looked to see at what he pointed.
This was what they saw.

Far, far above in that infinite sea of blue there appeared a tiny speck, which his sharp sight had already discerned, a speck that grew larger and larger as it descended with terrific and ever-growing speed.
_It was the king vulture falling from the heavens--dead!_ Down it came between the Vrouw Prinsloo and the slayers, smashing the lifted assegai of one of them and hurling him to the earth.

Down it came, and lay there a mere mass of pulp and feathers.
"O Dingaan," I said in the midst of the intense silence that followed, "it seems that it is I who have won the bet, not you.