Hide-and-seek in the Dark 179 



snorting on the plain which we have just left. ... A 

 few minutes longer and we should have met it again ! 

 My field-glass shows me only a gray, very indistinct 

 shadow which advances over the plain, but too far 

 away, owing to the darkness, to be fired at. . . . The 

 only thing to do is to wait. . . . During the space 

 of half an hour the animal makes us experience 

 many emotions : irritated beyond measure, it comes 

 and goes, returns on its steps, always invisible and per- 

 petually snorting. At one time it must have arrived 

 near the tree at the place we stopped to listen, because 

 it breathes with still more anger and precipitation. 

 My men say, " It isn't a rhinoceros, it is a steamer," 

 pronouncing the last word stima. In fact, it is a 

 whistling, blowing, and snorting machine, which beats 

 the neighbourhood, and looks for us in all places 

 where its little brain suspects us. We fear above all 

 that it will return on the left, and will again charge 

 us. This little game may be allowable in open 

 daylight, but in the very middle of the night, when 

 you can hardly see to direct your steps, playing at 

 hide-and-seek with an angry rhinoceros is a pastime 

 which I do not recommend to people with delicate 

 nerves. Your incapacity to see exasperates you 

 beyond measure ; you start at the slightest crack 

 or sound, and at last your ear even deceives you 

 as to the real position of the animal which you 

 hear. 



The noise ceases at last, and we believe that the 

 rhinoceros has gone. 1 More than half an hour passes. 



1 The next day I saw that the rhinoceros had not left the plain for 



