white Rhinoceros 



gone on in front, and was some way on my return 

 journey to the river — having left the carcase 

 to be cut up on the morrow — when I heard a 

 crash in the bush bordering my path, immediately 

 followed by another, and then a third ! 



The banks of the Nile, be it noted, are here 

 very much overgrown with dense undergrowth. 

 This gets thicker and gradually merges into forest 

 as one approaches the river. I had, therefore, 

 no notion as to what was advancing towards me. 

 The result was an attack of funks, which became 

 gradually worse and worse, as I expected to 

 have an elephant, or at least another rhino, to 

 contend with, now almost by the light of the 

 moon. 



And still the sound got closer, and I became 

 more alarmed. Nearer and yet nearer drew the 

 dreadful noise — sounds always appear to be 

 louder and more frightening in the still night — and 

 I gripped my rifle, prepared to do or die, when a 

 good British "Damn!" broke the awful silence, 

 and out stepped my companion of the launch — 

 the trusty engineer ! 



Talk about relief to one's feelings ! By Gad ! 

 Try being out in the jungle in the twilight that 

 is momentarily growing into darkness — not an 

 English twiliorht, which lasts for more than half an 

 hour at the least, but a gloom which will be pitch 

 black inside of ten minutes — and see what it feels 

 like, and what sort of a game it is, being sup- 



279 



