288 THE LAND OF THE LION 



compact and overwhelming mass to investigate the enemy. 

 It looked for a moment as though we must be crushed to 

 pieces under that thundering, snorting, whistling charge. 

 It required some nerve to stand one's ground, for the roar of 

 it seemed almost on top of me, and yet I could see nothing, 

 absolutely nothing, but swaying limbs of trees and tossing 

 brush. When about twenty yards off, suddenly, as it arose, 

 it came to a dead stop. Half a minute's pause, and then 

 another smashing retreat. This time the herd seemed to 

 scatter and from the sound I could tell that some were taking 

 the same road toward the open as the forty or fifty had, 

 before whose onslaught Syce had wisely and expeditiously 

 retreated. Now came my chance at last and I knew it, 

 for they must cross a narrow opening if they followed their 

 leaders, and as they crossed I might get a shot. I put my 

 best or rather my worst leg forward, and made as good time 

 as I could. As the leader, a cow, came out I was within 

 one hundred and fifty or one hundred and seventy yards. 

 There were four of them, the last a fine bull, with oh! such 

 splendid horns. He let me see their width for one instant 

 as he half turned his black, fierce head. Had he but 

 stopped for just one second I had had him, but as my fore- 

 sight bore on his shoulder he swerved into a thicket so I 

 could only swing the sight of my .450 a few feet ahead as I 

 fired. The big bullet told loudly and of course I knew I 

 had hit him, but the question was, where. 



Well, my gunboys and I went cautiously up, for no beast 

 in Africa is quite so deserving of care as a wounded buffalo. 

 He has a well-known trick of turning off his own trail at a 

 sharp angle, and so standing (hitherto of course by the dense 

 brush) within a few feet of the blood-marked track which 

 savage instinct teaches him his enemy, be he man or beast, 

 is sure to follow. As the hunter, lion or man, comes along, 

 his charge is swift and most deadly. You can generally 

 turn a rhino by a bullet in the head or shoulder, no matter 



