JUNGLE HUNTER 271 



long knife fastened to a stick, to cut its trunk and 

 then follow until it dropped from loss of blood. 



We had followed a great many tracks, and twice 

 we had heard rhino, but in cover so dense that it 

 was impossible to see them. One day I came on 

 elephant tracks, and a broad pathway through the 

 jungle showed where they had gone, comparatively 

 recently. Uda and my two men were hot-foot for 

 following these, but my time limit was drawing 

 near— and rhino still unfound. Throughout all 

 these days my men had been very patient ; and Uda, 

 who said this particular section was much like 

 Java, where he claimed to have hunted much, now 

 expressed confidence in our finally getting rhino. 

 One morning early we got on quite fresh tracks, 

 which we followed for several hours through very 

 dense undergrowth, the rhino meanwhile seeking 

 all the mud holes in the direction of his route. We 

 travelled in these tracks until noon as swiftly as 

 we could, and as silently ; and as they continued so 

 fresh and little more than a breath of air appeared 

 to be stirring, we went along stealthily, expecting 

 to come up with the quarry at any time. But it 

 was nearing five o'clock, with the chill of the ap- 

 proaching sunset beginning to settle upon the jun- 

 gle, and still we followed the spoor hopefully— 

 though unrewarded. Then the tracks led into and 



