THE GUASO NYERO 309 



had started back to look for it, accompanied by two of his 

 fellows, which was absolutely against orders. They had 

 come across a rhino, probably the one I had frightened 

 from our path, and had endeavored to avoid him; but he 

 had charged them, whereupon they scattered. He over- 

 took one and tossed him, goring him in the thigh; where- 

 upon they came back, the two unwounded ones supporting 

 the other, and all howling like lost souls. I had some crystals 

 of permanganate, an antiseptic, and some cotton in my 

 saddle pocket; Cuninghame tore some of the lining out of 

 his sleeve for a bandage; and we fixed the man up and left 

 him with one companion, while we sent another in to camp 

 to fetch out a dozen men with a ground-sheet and some 

 poles, to make a litter in which the wounded man could be 

 carried. While we were engaged in this field surgery 

 another rhino was in sight half a mile off. 



Then on we went on the trail of the herd. It led straight 

 across the open, under the blazing sun; and the heat was 

 now terrific. At last, almost exactly at noon, Cuninghame, 

 who was leading, stopped short. He had seen the buffalo, 

 which had halted, made a half-bend backward on their 

 tracks, and stood for their noonday rest among some scat- 

 tered, stunted thorn-trees, leafless and yielding practically 

 no shade whatever. A cautious stalk brought me to within 

 a hundred and fifty yards. I merely wounded the one I 

 first shot at, but killed another as the herd started to run. 

 Leaving the skinners to take care of the dead animal, a fine 

 cow, Cuninghame and I started after the herd, to see if 

 the wounded one had fallen out. After a mile the trail led 

 into some scant cover. Here the first thing we did was to 

 run into another rhinoceros. It was about seventy yards 



