CHAP. ii. RHINOCEROS. 75 



whatever game might come to the water-hole to drink 

 during the night would not be disturbed by its glare. 

 Several small bushes grew round the trunk of the tree, 

 and those in the centre had been cut down and added to 

 the others, and when the fire was lighted and the 

 shoulder and legs of the nkonka stuck on sticks round 



o 



it to roast, it did not look by any means an uncomfortable 

 sleeping-place, nor unpicturesque with the flame gleaming 

 on the barrels of the guns standing against the tree, and 

 lighting up the whole interior, while it made the enclosing 

 bushes look the blacker and thicker by contrast. 



In about an hour the first shoulder was done, and the 

 boy brought it to me and stuck it up in front of me by 

 means of the stick which had already been supporting it 

 while roasting, and I, drawing my hunting-knife, and 

 sharpening a stick for a fork, was just in the act of 

 breaking my fast for the first time that day, when I heard 

 a sudden succession of puffs, like a train just starting, and 

 could distinguish the heavy foot-fall of some animal. In 

 a second everybody was on his feet, and in another we 

 were all scrambling up the tree, I, I am sorry to say, still 

 holding on to my shoulder of antelope, and oblivious of 

 the fact that I had left my gun down below. We were 

 barely in time ; indeed, if the rhinoceros had charged 

 straight up to the tree it must have caught me, but it 

 was not necessary to go very high, and I was soon able to 

 watch its movements. Hardly ten seconds had elapsed 

 since I had heard the first warning puff, and now our 

 fire was scattered in every direction, and the vicious 

 animal was stamping upon it and everything else it saw, 

 and squealing with rage the whole time. The meat had 



