244 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



fully expecting it would charge, and trusting it might not see 

 me in the long grass. As it did not charge, I ventured to raise 

 myself to find out what had become of it. Both rhinos had dis- 

 appeared over the ridge of the hill. We followed with great 

 caution, not knowing if the wounded rhino might not be play- 

 ing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with us in the long 

 grass. I could see one rhino racing away in the plain beyond, 

 already a mile or more beyond our reach. At last we dis- 

 covered the other rhino ; it was dead ; killed by that one shot. 

 It was an old bull with a short but very powerful horn. I was 

 glad that the crowd, having come all this distance to get rhino- 

 meat, would not be disappointed after all, and I left them 

 chopping up the huge carcase. 



In the meanwhile I tried to stalk an antelope I had seen 

 about a mile off ; for just beyond this patch of long grass the 

 plain was covered with short grass barely six inches high. I 

 had thus the advantage of seeing the game, but the disadvantage 

 of being seen by it. As I drew nearer, I saw, still farther oft", 

 again a pair of rhinos. Trusting to their limited range of 

 vision and to the wind being in my favour, I went straight 

 towards the pair. At 200 yards they appeared to have noticed 

 us, for they stood and looked towards us. Kneeling on the 

 ground, I aimed at the one with the longer horn ; but just 

 as I pulled the trigger, the smaller rhino veered round and 

 intercepted my bullet, receiving it somewhere high up in the 

 back. Unfortunately, the wound was not a mortal one. 

 With a snort of rage both animals came in a sharp trot 

 towards us. 



My two men would have started up and bolted, but I just 

 managed to prevent it. All three of us now crawled oft" on our 

 stomachs, endeavouring to get out of the way of the advancing 

 rhinos. The two others got ahead of me, when suddenly my 

 Martini rifle, which I was dragging along with my left hand, 

 blazed oft". The muzzle was pointing behind me and at the 

 moment nearly touched my left foot. The bullet went clean 

 through my foot. The trigger, I suppose, had got caught in 

 some stubble. What made it worse, was that the loud report 

 was accompanied by a cloud of smoke, though I am not sure 

 now whether it was not this very smoke which hid us from 

 the two approaching rhinos. My men jumped up and ran 

 away, whereupon I too jumped up and ran ; but within fifty 



