258 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



the top of the rise, the rhino winded my companion 

 and at once changed its direction and made for him. 

 Brock lost no time in putting on his best pace in 

 an endeavour to reach the shelter of a tree which 

 stood some distance off, while I sat down and 

 watched the exciting race. I thought it would be 

 a pretty close thing, but felt confident that Brock, 

 who was very active, would manage to pull it off. 

 When he got about half-way to the tree, however, 

 he turned to see how far his pursuer was behind, and 

 in doing so put his foot in a hole in the ground, and to 

 my horror fell head over heels, his rifle flying from 

 his grasp. I expected the great brute to be on him 

 in a moment, but to my intense relief the old rhino 

 stopped dead when he saw the catastrophe which 

 had taken place, and then, failing (I suppose) to under- 

 stand it, suddenly made off in the opposite direction 

 as hard as he could go. In the meantime Brock had 

 got to his feet again, and raced for dear life to the 

 tree without ever looking round. It was a most 

 comical sight, and I sat on the rise and for the 

 second time that day laughed till my sides ached. 



After this we returned to the scene of my morn- 

 ing's adventure, where we found that the invaluable 

 Mahina had finished skinning the two lions. We 

 accordingly made our way back to camp with our 

 trophies, all of us, with perhaps the exception of 

 Roshan Khan, well satisfied with the day's outing. 



