i 74 



CHAPTER XXVII, 



AN UNWILLING CAPTIVE. 



At length the hide arrived, and was promptly cut 

 into rheims, and looped at each end, but place the 

 lasso over the fractious, pugnacious beast's head we 

 could not. At length one of the " boys " succeeded 

 in getting a foot fast ; in an instant after he was on 

 his back, and a dozen others on the top of the fallen 

 man. Such a melee might have been witnessed in 

 the palmy days of Donnybrook Fair, but certainly 

 never excelled ; and more than that, there seemed 

 no end to the farce, for the mobbed animal appeared 

 to be gifted with interminable endurance. At length 

 two nooses were got over the muzzle just behind the 

 rudimentary rear horn, and the young rhino' was a 

 captive, but far, very far, from being subdued. 



For the farce was not here finished ; the young 

 rebel hauled first one way, then another, now dashed 

 forward, then retreated, and so great was its strength 

 that, although handicapped with the resistance of 

 eight powerful men, it seemed at times as if it must 

 get loose ; and how the young villain screamed, a 

 pig's squeal after being stabbed by the butcher being 

 nothing in comparison. Possibly all these demonstra- 

 tions resulted from it being led from its mother's 



