CHAPTER LVI. 



A WHOLE ARMFUL. 



tHE story of Diedrick, as it was gradually drawn from him, was of the highest 

 interest to his listeners, but in the course of the narration he made a state* 

 ment which threw the three into a flutter of excitement. 



The rhinoceros that had given him such a sharp brush was a female, and at the 

 moment she had rushed from her resting-place upon the intruder, he had seen a little 

 one lying in the grass. It must have been quite young, for it made no attempt to 

 follow its mother. 



" That's lucky !" exclaimed Dick Brownell; "there's just the best chance in 

 the world to secure the very prize we want." 



" That's what we are here for," was the characteristic remark of Jack (since he 

 was a Texan); " though we have had plenty of fun, the trip will be a failure if we 

 don't scoop in a young one to take back with us." 



" And you'll gain a chance to use that lasso of yours," laughed Bob Marshall ; 

 " I know you must have felt bad to sit here and have so little part in the fun." 



The afternoon was so far along that there was no time to spare. Mounted in 

 the manner described, the four hunters on their three steeds plunged into the grass. 

 Diedrick took the lead, feeling quite willing for another encounter with the savage 

 female because of the trick she had served him. 



Although matters had not gone very satisfactorily up to this time, yet our friends 

 seemed now to have reached what may be called the turn in the tide. Diedrick had 

 not penetrated two hundred yards in the grass from which he had emerged a short 

 time before on foot, when he almost ran his horse against the very female for which 

 he was searching. 



But for the alertness and vigilance of the pony, he would have been impaled on 

 the frightful horn of the brute. The first thing that his friends observed was the 

 sudden wheeling about of the startled horse and his plunge, as though he was 

 about to run over them. 



Dick Brownell had just time to turn his pony to one side and Jack Harvey to 

 the other, when the native shot between them, with the rhinoceros in hot pursuit. 

 This " arrangement " gave the very chance the hunters wanted, since the beast, 

 paying no attention to them, exposed her broadside as she lumbered past. 



Jack, Bob and Dick let drive at the proper moment, and it may be safely said 

 that no animal of that species was ever killed with greater suddenness. The vast 

 bulk sagged forward and downward, swinging over on one side, and the animal 

 died without a struggle. As before, the wounds were hardly visible, the victim 

 bleeding to death inwardly. 



