TWO EHINOS 93 



The effect was remarkable. This hitherto apathetic 

 beast, which had so far treated cordite with shio-oish 

 indifference, suddenly awoke to life and amazing 

 activit}". AVitli a succession of hissing snorts — resound- 

 ing like jets of steam driving through a safety-valve — he 

 reared on end, spun round again and again, and finally, 

 still shrieking and rearing, bolted back to the covert he 

 had just quitted. He left a track like a runaway 

 wagon, which we followed ; but it was now dusk and 

 raining in torrents, with lightning and thunder crackling 

 straight overhead. Nothing more could be done that 

 night. It w^as a rough job to regain camp. 



At break of day I took up the spoor with fifteen 

 boys, following it for hours through thin scrub and 

 thick. The latter seemed to me highly dangerous 

 work, our radius of vision being limited to a few yards. 

 On open ground the rain had obliterated all tracks, and 

 I divided my force into three parties, two circling on 

 the flanks, to cut the spoor ahead when we lost it 

 ourselves ; but noon arrived without our overhauling 

 the stricken rhino. The midday heat was more than I 

 could withstand, so I returned to camp, directing the 

 trackers to hold the spoor till night. After sundown 

 they too returned empty-handed. Not a sign of the 

 beast had been seen, thoug-h we had followed on for 

 eight or ten miles. Either I or the "303 had failed. 

 After this double disappointment, first with elephant 

 and now with rhino, I decided never again to take on 

 these huge pachyderms with a small bore. 



It was at this spot — that is, on the first plateau of 

 Laikipia — that, a year before, a terrible accident had 

 befallen an English sportsman, Mr. B. Eastwood of 

 Nairobi, whom I afterwards had the pleasure of meeting, 

 and who kindly allows me to reproduce his description 

 of the event as follows — 



" On Sunday, the 19th of October, I was under way 

 before six, and made straight for the big hill (Njoro- 

 Ilimalo), nine or ten miles away, where 1 had seen the 

 koodoo tracks. I had gone some distance up the valley, 



