Then there was a puff of white smoke, a roar that reverberated amongst the rocks, and the poor wretch seemed to drop out of sight.
The doctor's face looked tight and drawn as he reloaded, and for a moment I felt horrified; but then, seeing a great brawny black fellow raise himself up to draw his bow and shoot at the part where Jack Penny was crouching, and each time seem to send his arrow more close to my companion, I felt suddenly as if an angry wave were sweeping over my spirit, and lay there scowling at the man.
He rose up again, and there was a whizz and a crack that startled me.
"I say," drawled Jack Penny, "mind what you're after.

You'll hit some one directly." He said this with a strange solemnity of voice, and picking up the arrow he handed it to one of the blacks.
"That thing went right through my hair, Joe Carstairs," he continued.
"It's making me wild." I hesitated no longer, but as the great savage rose up once more I took a quick aim and fired just as he was drawing his bow.
The smoke obscured my sight for a few moments, during which there was a furious yelling, and then, just as the thin bluish vapour was clearing off, there was another puff, and an echoing volley dying off in the distance, for Jack Penny had also fired.
"I don't know whether I hit him," he answered; "but he was climbing up there like t'other chap was, and I can't see him now." In the excitement of the fight the terrible dread of injuring a fellow creature now seemed to have entirely passed away, and I watched one savage stealing from bush to bush, and from great stone to stone with an eagerness I could not have believed in till I found an opportunity of firing at him, just as he too had reached a dangerous place and had sent his first arrow close to my side.
I fired and missed him, and the savage shouted defiance as my bullet struck the stones and raised a puff of dust.

The next moment he had replied with a well-directed arrow that made me wince, it was so near my head.
By this time I had reloaded and was taking aim again with feverish eagerness, when all at once a great stone crashed down from above and swept the savage from the ledge where he knelt.
I looked on appalled as the man rolled headlong down in company with the mass of stone, and then lay motionless in the bottom of the little valley.
"Who is it throwing stones ?" drawled Jack slowly.

"That was a big one, and it hit." "That could not have been an accident," said the doctor; "perhaps Aroo is up there." "I only hope he is," I cried; "but look, look! what's that ?" I caught at the doctor's arm to draw his attention to what seemed to be a great thickly tufted bush which was coming up the little valley towards us.
"Birnam wood is coming to Dunsinane," said the doctor loudly.
"Is it ?" said Jack Penny excitedly.

"What for?
Where?
What do you mean ?" "Look, look!" I cried, and I pointed to the moving bush.
"Well, that's rum," said Jack, rubbing his nose with his finger.