274 UDA PRANG 



came up on to the mound, I fired twice for that 

 wicked eye (the eye of a charging rhino is a pretty 

 small mark, perhaps you may know) , once making 

 a slight superficial wound on the forehead, and 

 again sending the ball into the fleshy part of the 

 fore shoulder. Neither shot made any impression 

 on the rhino, which kept coming. 



By now he was not more than ten feet from me, 

 I should say, and I had just pumped another shell 

 into the barrel, when suddenly I was thrown off 

 my feet and over the side of the mound. As I went 

 into the air, I expected every second to feel the 

 rhino's horn in my side; but I held on to my rifle 

 (which, curiously, did not go off although at full 

 cock) and, when I fell, scrambled to my feet as 

 quickly as I could. The rhino had crossed the 

 mound and was running towards the jungle with 

 apparently no more thought of me than if I had 

 not stood in his path a few seconds before. It did 

 not take me long to put a ball at the base of his 

 ear, and he dropped like a stone— without a sound. 



He had but a single horn on the lower part of 

 the nose, four inches in height, and a kind of knob 

 where had been, or was to be, another above it. 

 The usual Indian rhino, including the smaller 

 Malay, has one horn, but some of the Sumatra 

 variety have two. 



It was an experience rather conclusive on the 



