With Flashlight and Rifle * 



other two creatures ! Some seconds thus elapse, in the 

 most terrible suspense. Again there is a crashing noise in 

 the thicket before me, but neither of the two monsters 

 attempts a fresh onset ; on the contrary, both of them 

 clatter away to the right into the valley. 



A number of my men, despite the dense undergrowth, 

 had vanished, as if swallowed up by the ground. Now 

 they come creeping back from all directions, consternation 

 on every face, and they try to persuade me that it is 

 impossible to go on, since even the Wandorobo and 

 Wakamba dare not penetrate farther into the bush. 

 But I persist in my intention, and we press forward as 

 soon as the horns of the dead rhinoceros have been 

 detached. The rhinoceros family evidently consists of 

 a cow, an already well-grown youngster, and the bull 

 that I have slain. 



I now attempt another method of pursuing my way 

 unmolested. I try to keep away the rhinoceroses, 

 firing rifle-shots here and there into the bush. This 

 succeeds for a while, but in such circumstances every 

 cartridge is priceless. Moreover, I am attacked again, 

 after two more hours, by three rhinoceroses, and this 

 time in a most unpleasant fashion. The beasts, 

 which had already come out of their lairs, allowed us 

 to approach almost within touching distance. And I 

 certainly must attribute my salvation solely to the fact 

 that the wind was most favourable to us, so that I 

 succeeded at the last moment in stretching two of the 

 brutes on the ground, with a shot in their necks, while 

 the third, by great good luck, was put to flight. 



618 



