90 LARGE GAME. CHAP. n. 



thicket beyond. Fearing lest it should make some fresh 

 movement, and so again conceal its shoulder, now in full 

 view, I at once raised my gun, and hesitating for a second 

 between the centre of the shoulder-blade and just behind 

 it, I decided in favour of the latter and pulled the trigger, 

 at the same time jumping clear of the bush and smoke, and 

 throwing myself down in the open, where the grass was 

 long enough to hide me. Loading as I lay, I watched the 

 mighty struggles of the brute to rise, till, fearing it would 

 succeed, I went up and fired both barrels, the first into 

 the one shoulder, the second into the other, hoping in that 

 way to at least disable it ; and after waiting on the spot 

 for ten minutes, I thought it unnecessary to do more, and 

 returned to the pool. 



Knowing very well that after all that noise I need not 

 hope for anything to come for a long time, I stretched 

 myself out as comfortably as the branches of the tree 

 would allow, and placing my gun so that it could not fall, 

 I tried to keep sleep off by thinking ; however, I was tired, 

 and the cool air and stillness made me drowsy, and before 

 long I found myself sleeping in snatches, which at last 

 ended in utter unconsciousness. 



Some hours had passed when I next awoke, half falling 

 off the tree before I remembered where I was, but the 

 instant I did so the sullen gurgle of displaced mud warned 

 me that there was something in the pool. Gently raising 

 myself therefore into a sitting posture, I looked, and saw, 

 for the moonlight was now almost as bright as day, a 

 rhinoceros wallowing in the shallow water and mud, while 

 its companion stood on the sky-line on the bank above. 

 Looking more closely, while my hand sought my gun, I 



