Marie: An Episode in the Life of the Late Allan Quatermain

he awful terror in my heart lest I should be too late, as with wild eyes I watched the paling stars and the first gathering grey of dawn. Now, the creaking of the ox-cart, the familiar veld, t

he second end? I wondered, and those words seemed to jumble themselves up in my mind and shape a sentence that it did not conceive. It was: "In the victory that is death," w

g no pain, I asked my father what he thought that the Heer Marais had meant when he told us that the Boe

the slaves, and because we will not kill out all the Kaffirs with whom they chance to quarrel, or to trek from the Colony. For my part I think it will be the latter, for, as you have heard, some parties have already gone; an

any rate, until I have won back my mare." (I had left her in Re

having mixed a great deal with the Dutch, I knew that there was another side to the question, namely, that the missionaries sometimes traduced them (as, in fact, they did), and that British rule, or rather, party government, played strange tricks with the interests of distant dependencies. That permanent officials and im-permanent ones too-such as governors full of a little brief authority-often misrepresented and

thinking. What appealed to me and made my heart sick was the reflection that if Henri Marais and his friends trekked, Marie Marais must p

that is a kind of cross between port and Burgundy-I found myself so much better that I was able to hop about the place upon a pair of crutches which Hans improvised for me

rought with him, amongst other weapons, what in those days was considered a very beautiful hair-triggered small-bore rifle fitted with a nipple for percussion caps, then quite a new invention. It was by a maker of the name of J. Purdey, of London, and had cost quite a large sum be

elled percussion-ca

which figures so

ch of his life, has

before me as I writ

dey, of 314 1/2, Ox

iece of workmanship

s now missing, it w

l is octagonal, a

pherical bullet, is

t to safety on the h

h behi

y of the weapon, o

t by pressing on th

pull of the piece i

es to fire it, thus

he fullest sen

ghts marked for 15

xed sight designed

rd

raved a stag and a

the secon

iod, it is an extra

shed with horn at t

and with the stoc

shion against whi

ter

I do not know, but I

of powder. It is ea

n Quatermain this we

ble of great things

the faith he put i

e Kloof, and after

ng of the vultures o

, when the lives o

ell justified. This

lts in b

rifle, Messrs. Purd

caps were experime

that their firm sol

1,000, although thei

some years lat

the most extraordinary accuracy up to a range of about two hundred yards, though when I rode off in that desperate hurry for Maraisfontein I did not take it with me because it was a single barrel and too small in

ery fine imported powder. Therefore, having ammunition in plenty, I set to work to practise. Seating myself upon a chair in a deep kloof near the stat

iving object; I say nothing of target work, of which I have little experience. Oddly enough, also, I believe that at this art, although then I lacked the practice which since has come to me in such plenty, I was as good as a youth as I have ever been in later days, and, of course, far better than I am now. This I soo

cities of my rifle and the allowance that must be made according to the speed of the bird, its distance, and the complications of the wind and of the light. D

e cart with two horses to the place known as Groote Kloof or Great Gully. Over this gorge the wild geese flighted from their "pans" or feeding ground

r and I were astonished to see a great number of Boers assembled there, and among them

own there was to be such a fuss as this about a sh

Unless I am much mistaken, it has been made the excuse of a public mee

the majority of those Boers, after full and long discussion, had arranged to shak

etief caught sight of me being helped out of the cart by my father and Hans, whom I had brought to load, and for

ch like a man of his word. Friend Marais, stop talking about

f face to face with real life and all its troubles. Following her close, very close, as I was quick to notice, was Hernan Pereira. He was even more finely dressed than usual a

e sort. "Well, Mynheer Allan, here you find me quite ready to shoot your head off." (He didn't mean that, though I dare say he was.) "I tell you that

rie, "you have been practisin

rs said that the geese would begin their afternoon flight within about half an hour. So the spectators were all requested to arrange themselves under the sheer cliff of the kloof, where they could not be seen by the birds coming over them from behind, and there to keep silence. Then Pereira and I-I attended b

take the first six shots, as the strain of waiting made him nervous. I answered, "Certainly," although I knew well that the object of the request was that he believed that the outpost geese-"spy-geese" we called them-which would b

about a quarter o

Goose

see the bird, I heard its cry of "Honk,

leared the cliff edge by about twenty feet, and passed over not more than thirty yards up, an easy shot.

or our

of ducks, passing straight above us, as they must do owing to the shape of the gap between the land waves of the veld above t

goose, or the other,

sure," he answe

ttentot; "he shot at the f

red. "Who would lie

irds, their leader being at the point of the triangle, which was flying higher than those that had gone before. He

cross each other as I pulled? That was a lucky one for me

but doubtless they must have done so, or th

ed at each other and laug

osed at a rather high goose-it may have been about seventy yards in the air. He struck it right enough, for the feathers flew from its breas

claimed Pereira. "They can car

fully. "Never before did I see a bird fly

ewhere," replied Pereira a

ntitled to do, low and easy young geese that came over him slowly. He killed them both, al

broke from the audience, to whic

o beat that. Even if I rule out one of the two birds that fell to a single shot, as

se geese collected and put upon one side. I don't want them

apping and had to have their necks twisted, but at the time I did not go to look at them. While this

ing at me curiously. "Powder is p

ll, oblige me by looki

and placed them in his hand, begging him

than Hernan's," said Retief, "who,

e, and drove home the wad. Then, taking a bullet from Retief's hand, he r

ad sighted the Kaffirs collecting the fallen birds and risen-an example which the others noted from afar and followed-or because

Allan," said Retief. "It shoul

red, "but that can

, holding about eight yards ahead of him to allow for his pace, and pressed. Next second I heard the clap of the bullet, but alas! it had only struck the outstretched b

began to re-load, "you were too far in front. These bi

excitement, for if I missed the next shot the match appe

d travelling "as though the black devil had kicked it," as Retief said. This time I

lling but a little way behind

ll too far in front. Why aim at th

and widgeon. I took the right-hand angle bird, so that it could not be supposed I had "browned the lot," as here in England they say of one who fires a

undred and twenty yards above me, and the other by no means easy, I killed the next three birds one after the other,

he pause between the fifth and sixth shots, "why

ed, and next instant brought down num

me from all the audience, and I s

end," said

at something else that is not in the match, just to see if

hand to prevent the audience from moving, and bid

on some of the fallen geese. I took the rifle and waited for a long while, till at last my opportunity came. I saw that the larger hen falcon was about to cross directly over the circle of its mate, there being perhaps a distance of ten yards between them. I a

alf a second, and down came the higher o

glishman excel, there broke a shout of acclamation. Never

you notice that I intended to tr

ut tell me, Allan Quatermain, ar

ed with a shrug as I sat myself do

k waddling behind, and formed a circle round us, all talking at once. I did not listen to their co

ll the same, Uncle Retief, I claim the

Pereira had shot. "Now," I said to Retief, "examine the wounds in these birds, and then that on the second bird which t

g them up one by one. Then he threw down the

n using loopers, or else bullets that were sawn in quarters and glued or tied with thread. Look, lo

re to use bullets, but it was never said that they should not b

in pieces and fixed together again, so that after it left the muzzle it might spread out like shot. But I do not wi

ng the Boers, in the midst of which M

hatever they may decide, you

ed-"that is, since the time of the ancient Romans. Anyhow, I should

f put up his ha

ount. But that writing does say that any bird accidentally killed should not count, and therefore one goose must be subtracted from Pereira's t

pinion was much against him, "let the Englishman take the money. I d

shoot again against one who plays such tricks. Keep your money, Mynheer Pereira, and I w

say. Friend Allan, you have played fair, and I believe

said the aud

ir also you would have been beaten, but as it is you have saved your hundred pounds. Mynheer Pereira," he added in a great

tion was aroused Retief was no measurer of language

ed to make you answer for such talk," and

ith split ones. None shall say that Pieter Retief was afraid of any man, and, least of all, of one who is n

table Retief, a man whose courage was as proverbial throughout the land as was his perfect uprightness of character. At any rate, seeing

nded to cheat, but only to do what he thought was allowed. Why should he, who is one of the finest shots in the Colony, though it may be that young Allan Quaterma

"I will not tell a lie t

e. What he said I do not know. The result of it was, however, that after favouring both Retief and myself with an angry s

while to come, and heartily do I wish that it had bee