SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 117 



that I did not think anything was amiss until I saw that if 

 the nearer of those now in front of me, an old cow, should 

 forge her own length once more ahead, her foot would be on 

 me. She was so near that I might possibly have dropped her 

 with a ball up the nostril, and, had she been alone, I should 

 probably have tried it ; but the rhinoceros, when he charges, 

 nearly always makes straight for the smoke of the gun, even 

 though the hunter is concealed, and I knew that if No. i fell, 

 No. 2, who was within four or five yards of her, would, in all 

 probability, be over me before the smoke cleared. In the 

 hope that my sudden appearance from the ground under her 

 feet would startle her and give me a chance of escape, I sprang 

 up ; the old lady was taken aback for a moment and threw 

 up her head with a snort. I dashed alongside of her to get 

 in her rear ; my hand was on her as I passed ; but the shock 

 to her nerves was not strong enough, for before I had made 

 ten yards she was round, and in full chase. 



I should have done better to fire into her as I went by, 

 but it had not occurred to me, and it was now too late ; in 

 my anxiety to escape, to put it as mildly as mav be, I had 

 neglected my best chance, and paid the penalty. I was a fast 

 runner ; the ground was in my favour, but in thirty yards from 

 the start she was at my heels. A quick turn to the left saved 

 me for the moment, and, perhaps, by giving my pursuer my 

 flank instead of my back, my life too. The race was over in 

 the next ; as the horned snout came lapping round my thigh 

 I rested the gun on the long head and, still running, fired 

 both barrels ; but with the smoke I was sailing through the 

 air and remember nothing more, for I fell upon my head and 

 was stunned. 



The day was fast drawing to a close when, though in that 

 addled state which prevents a man from deciding whether to- 

 day is yesterday or to-morrow, my brain seemed stirring again 

 in a thick fog. By degrees I became aware that I was on my 

 horse, that a native was leading it, and another carrying my 

 gun beside my stirrup. It all appeared strange, but with the 



