TWO KHINOS 95 



be not the slightest breath of Hfe left in it ; so I walked 

 up, wondering what its horns measured, and how I could 

 get it skinned and reach camp liefore dark. 



" All these conjectures were rudely knocked on the 

 head. When less than twenty yards away the huge beast 

 gave a roll and got on to its feet. My riHe was up at 

 once, and I put a bullet into the shoulder ; but before 

 I could get in a second shot the brute was charging 

 straight. 



" I commenced to run at a ris^ht ano:le to its course, 

 thinking the rhino would probably go on in a straight 

 line, as they usually do ; but the first step I took I 

 tripped and fell, and before I could regain my feet it 

 was on top of me. 



" I was nearly on my feet when it struck me. It hit 

 me first with its nose, dropped with both knees on me, 

 then, drawing back for the blow, threw me clean over 

 its back, the horn entering the back of my left thigh, 

 and I saw the animal w^ell underneath me as I was 

 flying through the air. It threw me a second time, but 

 I cannot recollect that throw clearly : and then came on 

 a third time. I was lying on my right side when the 

 great black snout was pushed against me. Then I 

 found myself upon my feet — how, 1 do not know — and 

 staggered off. As I went an inky darkness came upon 

 me. After going perhaps forty or fifty yards, expecting 

 every moment to be charged again, I felt that I might 

 as well lie down and let the beast finish its work without 

 further trouble ; so I lay down."^ 



The spot where the catastrophe occurred was fifteen 

 miles from his camp, and that camp a twelve-hours' march 

 beyond Baringo. The nearest doctor was distant 136 

 miles — at Fort Ternan. There, on the desert veld, a 

 shattered wreck, with rioht arm smashed, ribs stove in 

 and broken, and many minor injuries, lay Eastwood 

 all alone, and exposed hour after hour to the fierce 

 ecjuatorial sun and with ghoulish vultures flapping close 

 overhead. Not till late in the afternoon did his men 

 1 Glohe Trotter, March 1907. 



