THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS 



Winchester for the heavy .577 Express, which the gun 

 bearer had been carrying behind me up to that time. 



In perfect silence and as quietly as possible we followed 

 in the tracks of the big beasts, being particularly careful 

 not to step on any dead branches, nor to make any other 

 noise, which might disturb the animals. We had not gone 

 on thus more than perhaps ten or fifteen minutes before 

 the men stopped again. They now tried even harder than 

 before to make me give up the pursuit. Again they said 

 that it was useless to follow the rhinos, as they were much 

 *' too far away " from us to be overtaken. Before I had 

 even a chance to reply, the rhinos themselves answered 

 with their peculiar angry sniff, only a couple of dozen 

 yards or so away from us ! 



Where we stood, the jungle was so dense that it was 

 almost impossible to move the arms freely, or to raise a 

 gun, but I saw a little to my left, and in the direction from 

 where the noise of the rhinos came, a small opening, for 

 which I quickly made, thinking myself followed by the 

 gun bearer and the rest of the men. Louder and louder 

 sounded the crashing of the trees, as the big beasts came 

 charging down upon us, and, turning around to see if the 

 gun bearer was ready with the reserve gun, there was not 

 a man in sight. It was as if the earth had swallowed them 

 all! 



As I reached one end of the little opening, out shot the 

 head of a big rhino on the opposite side, only about twenty 

 feet away. A flash and a tremendous roar from the pow- 

 erful gun, and the huge rhino rolled over only a few feet 

 away from me, his brain pierced by the powerful steel- 

 jacketed bullet! Just as I was gasping for breath, and 



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