156 THE TROTTING RHINO 



through southern Trenggana toward Pahang, 

 Nagh sighted three seladangs in the lalang of a 

 little gully that ran into the hill range along which 

 we were travelling, and brought the news half a 

 mile back to where I sat among our camp para- 

 phernalia mending a shirt, that had been torn 

 almost completely off my back by an encounter 

 with a thorn bush. Following Nagh's back track 

 we came to .where I could see the cattle in the 

 lalang, but the grass was so high that it left only 

 a few inches of the top shoulder of the one nearest 

 me as a very indifferent target. There was no way 

 of improving my position, however ; in. fact, I had 

 the best one possible, and being happy to have any 

 view of these animals whose trails I had so often 

 followed without success, I placed two lead-pointed 

 balls from my 50 calibre, the only rifle I had with 

 me, as rapidly as I could fire— though the sela- 

 dangs were off with the first shot and my second 

 was at the scarcely visible shoulder going from me 

 in the swaying grass. 



I was not sure if I had wounded one, or, if so, 

 whether it had gone with the others ; so I took care 

 to discover that none lurked in the lalang, for I 

 knew its reputation and its trick, like that of the 

 Cape (African) buffalo, of lying in wait for the 

 hunter, and I had no thought of being added to 

 the list of Malay sportsmen killed by a charging 



