THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



high grass, and stood looking uncertainly in our 

 direction. 



" Look out ! Rhinos ! " I warned instantly. 



"Why — why!" gasped Billy in an astonished 

 tone of voice, "they have manes!" 



In some concern for her sanity I glanced in her 

 direction. She was staring, not to her left, but 

 straight ahead. I followed the direction of her gaze, 

 to see three lions moving across the face of the hill. 



Instantly we dropped off our horses. We wanted 

 a shot at those lions very much indeed, but were 

 hampered in our efforts by the two rhinoceroses, now 

 stamping, snorting, and moving slowly in our direc- 

 tion. The language we muttered was racy, but we 

 dropped to a kneeling position and opened fire on 

 the disappearing lions. It was most distinctly a 

 case of divided attention, one eye on those menacing 

 rhinos, and one trying to attend to the always deli- 

 cate operation of aligning sights and signalling from 

 a rather distracted brain just when to pull the trigger. 

 Our faithful gunbearers crouched by us, the heavy 

 guns ready. 



One rhino seemed either peaceable or stupid. He 

 showed no inclination either to attack or to depart, 

 but was willing to back whatever play his friend 

 might decide on. The friend charged toward us 

 until we began to think he meant battle, stopped, 



292 



