With Flashlight and Rifle - 



horns back to camp. I have- quite enough carriers 

 about twelve men left with whom to continue my march 

 and the exploration of the peak-forest, so that I need 

 not burden myself with the kill. But, strangely enough, 

 I now come while marching at the head of my 

 servants and carefully picking my way through bush and 

 branches almost directly, and quite unexpectedly, upon 

 the first rhinoceros, a bull, rising from his lair about 

 thirty paces in front of me ! I can only see the head 

 and horns. The animal is standing motionless, trvino- 



t_> J O 



to investigate the approaching foes, for the wind is in 

 our favour. 



I did not expect to put up a " faru " so imme- 

 diately after my shot at the antelope ! Of course it was 

 lying in a hollow, and the thicket surrounding us may 

 well have entirely deadened the sound of the gun, or 

 else the rhinoceros mistook it for thunder. 



Instinctively my people stand as still as pillars of 

 salt, for I make no movement, except the lightning-quick 

 snatch at my rifle. Then the " faru " flings round ; it 

 escapes to the mountain-slope with a clatter, and we see 

 it no more. I had no intention of killing it, nor did 

 its very ordinary pair of horns especially tempt me. But 

 more carefully now we take our way, step by step, through 

 the thicket, looking out most cautiously, and straining 

 our ears to the utmost. 



Soon we come upon a whole lot of fresh rhinoceros- 

 lairs, hollowed out from the ground like ostrich-nests, 

 and often showing traces of recent use. Most rhino- 

 ceros-lairs are found under shade-giving bushes, but 



612 



