I killed this king of birds, but being a king it chose to die high up and alone, that is all." Dingaan hesitated, for he did not wish to spare the Boers, and I, noting his hesitation, lifted my rifle a little.

Perhaps he saw it, or perhaps his sense of honour, as he understood the word, overcame his wish for their blood.

At any rate, he said to one of his councillors: "Search the carcase of that vulture and see if there is a bullet hole in it." The man obeyed, feeling at the mass of broken bones and flesh.

By good fortune he found, not the hole, for that was lost in the general destruction of the tissues, but the ball itself, which, having pierced the thick body from below upwards, had remained fast in the tough skin just by the back-bone where the long, red neck emerges from between the wings.

He picked it out, for it was only hanging in the skin, and held it up for all to see.
"Macumazahn has won his bet," said Dingaan.