SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 103 
_ my after-rider came up with another gun. I half pulled him 
_ from his pony and mounting it caught and killed the rhino- 
ceros. The horn now hangs over the entrance to my front 
door. 
That day Frank happened to be again hunting in the same 
direction as myself, and, hearing the reports of my gun, hoped 
_ I might have come up with the elephants I had started after in 
the morning. He found me sitting under a bush, hatless, and 
_ holding up the piece of my scalp with the blood streaming down 
. my face, or, as he afterwards described it to Livingstone, 
| I saw that beggar Oswell sitting under a bush holding on his 
_ head.’ A few words told him what had happened, and then 
_ my thoughts turned to Stael. That very morning, as I left 
.- ‘the waggons, I had talked to him affectionately, as a man 
can talk to a good horse, telling him how, when the hunting 
_ ‘was over, I would make him fat and happy, and I had played 
_ with him and he with me. It was with a very sore heart I put 
a ball through his head, took the saddle from his back, and 
‘started waggonwards, walking half the distance (ten miles), and 
making my after-rider do likewise. Unless a man has been 
situated as I was then, it is difficult to make him understand 
i “allt that the loss of a good horse means. You cannot even fill 
up his place in quantity, let alone quality, In this part of 
= ‘Africa, at all events, your success depends enormously upon 
your steed, for the country is generally too open for stalking, and 
| he carries you up to your game, in most instances, as near as 
you like, and it is your fault if you don’t succeed. Had I been © 
the best shot that ever looked along a rifle, and made of steel, 
‘I could have done but a trifle without horses, in comparison 
with what I accomplished with them. Armed as I was with 
"a smooth-bore not very true with heavy charges at over thirty 
yards, it was a necessity to get as near my game as possible. 
Iam not vain of my shooting—I can do what I intend pretty 
' well at from ten to twenty-five yards—but I would have given 
_ the best shot in the world without horses very long odds ; 
_ besides, from the saddle you see so much more of the country, 
