104 LARGE GAME. chap. ii. 



the gloomy stillness of the spot, I climbed up into the 

 tree without waiting to see the result of the shot, unfor- 

 tunately leaving my gun at the bottom when I did so. I 

 had hardly got into one of the lower branches before I 

 could tell by the faint sounds of struggling in the thicket 

 that I had no real cause for fear, and I was turning to 

 come down again when I became conscious of an approach- 

 ing noise of bushes breaking, accompanied by snorting and 

 puffing, and in a few seconds a fresh rhinoceros made its 

 appearance, evidently in the very highest state of rage 

 and excitement at a gun being fired in this den of theirs. 

 It soon got my wind, although it failed to see me sitting 

 on a bare branch not two yards from its head, and went 

 off in the direction I had come from, making a most tre- 

 mendous noise, and tossing its head about in a very vicious 

 manner, so that I judged it best to get out of the place as 

 soon as possible ; and as on going up to the wounded one I 

 found it dead, my last shot having destroyed what little life 

 was left, and there was nothing more to keep me, I made for 

 the outside as fast as I could, only fearing, as was likely 

 enough, that the brute might come back, and, striking 

 my fresh trail, overtake me somewhere where I should 

 not have the shelter of a tree ; but I saw nothing more of 

 it, and went straight back to the pool, arriving there 

 shortly after mid-day ; and after convincing myself that 

 the wounded buffalo had not fallen in my neighbourhood, 

 but that to kill it would entail a long and wearisome 

 chase, the success of which was uncertain, I lay down 

 under the tree and slept till evening, not awaking till 

 the rustling of the long grass and leaves announced the 

 arrival of the breeze which usually springs up at that 



