WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



thorn tree, round the trunk of which the lasso was 

 passed. Just before he was finally tied up he drove 

 Loveless up a tree, but that was his last effort. He 

 stood there a gallant, sullen captive, the real hero 

 of the act, whilst I used the last of my film on him. 



When we visited the place next morning he had 

 gone. I met a man who saw the same rhino with a 

 bit of rope on his head, and directly he got the smell of 

 a white man he was off like hghtning. 



After the lassoing of the rhino there came another 

 blank. We wanted a lion now. One day I sighted 

 two against a hot spring over a mile away. There were 

 a few rocks in the background. When we got to the 

 place the lions had vanished completely, but one had 

 left the biggest pug-mark I had ever seen. Everything 

 else had to give way to the search for lions, yet none 

 was sighted. Day after day it was the same, and with 

 each hour our chances of success grew less. Stores 

 were shrinking rapidly, a sense of discouragement was 

 spreading through the whole party, and the real rains 

 which would make the country almost impassable 

 for the wagons became more and more of a danger 

 to the expedition. 



At last, after a camp-fire council, we decided to 

 accept the inevitable and head back for Nairobi. There 

 was a chance, of course, of a lion on the homeward 

 journey, but I believe none of us really counted on it. 

 We hurried over the road — if you can use that term 



162 



