A NOBLE BEAST 47 



covered, and as he swayed forward in the first 

 impulse of attack, my bullet struck him in the 

 middle of the neck and crashed through the 

 vertebral column. Then the strong, tense form 

 collapsed and sank impotently to earth. 



He was a noble beast, — this creature whose 

 life I had wasted. Why had I done it? Be- 

 cause I wanted meat; because I followed the 

 law of my being in obeying the hunters' in- 

 stinct, — almost the deepest and strongest in 

 man. The answer was, of course, not quite a 

 good one; I felt it could not be supported on 

 ethical grounds. But conventional ethics 

 belonged, after all, to an environment I no 

 longer inhabited. Where I then lived and 

 moved and had my being, the unmoral stan- 

 dards of primeval man prevailed. 



A shout from the top of the dune. It was 

 from Andries and the others who, on hearing 

 the first shot, hurried over to see what my 

 fortune had been. We returned in triumph to 

 the wagon, carrying the liver of the slain oryx. 

 This would be roasted on the embers for break- 

 fast. Hendrick and his assistants would see 

 to it that the rest of the meat, the head and 

 the skin were removed and properly treated. 

 Very soon the carcase had been dismembered 

 and carried piecemeal to the camp. After the 



