AFRICA 



actual slope, however, I revised my schedule. The 

 reason was supplied by a rhino that came grunting 

 to his feet about seventy yards away. He had not 

 seen m.e, and he had not smelled me, but the general 

 disturbance of all these events had broken into his 

 early morning nap. He looked to me like a person 

 who is cross before breakfast, so I ducked low and ran 

 around him. The last I saw of him he was still 

 standing there, quite disgruntled, and evidently in- 

 tending to write to the directors about it. 



Arriving at the top, I looked eagerly down. The 

 cliff fell away at an impossible angle, but sheer 

 below ran out a narrow bench fifty yards wide. 

 Around the point of the hill to my right — where the 

 herd had gone — a game trail dropped steeply to 

 this bench. I arrived just in time to see the sing- 

 sing, still trotting, file across the bench and over its 

 edge, on some other invisible game trail, to continue 

 their descent of the cliff. The big buck brought up 

 the rear. At the very edge he came to a halt, and 

 looked back, throwing his head up and his nose out 

 so that the heavy fur on his neck stood forward like 

 a ruff. It was a last glimpse of him, so I held my 

 little best, and pulled trigger. 



This happened to be one of those shots I spoke of 

 — which the perpetrator accepts with a thankful 

 cind humble spirit. The sing-sing leaped high in the 



IS 



