154 ON SAFARI 



Being all separate, without means of communication, 

 aggravated the miseries of the moment ; spirits fell 

 below zero, and the whole venture, in my then state, 

 now appeared sheer madness — suicidal. Hope was all 

 but dead within my breast when Farra, the syce, 

 stopped and, pointing through the viewless torrent 

 along the hillside, whispered, " Kifaru ! " (rhinoceros). 

 The excitement of that word effected wonders, renewing 

 life and hope and pulling me together. After a short 

 stalk I descried a vast bulky form, half hidden amid thorn- 

 scrub on the slope above. The head was not in sight ; but 

 indeed through that driving mist and deluge all details 

 were invisible — one could scarce see to distinguish the 

 foresight, and the ball struck very low, behind the 

 fore-leg. The rhino whipped round and vanished as a 

 rabbit might, giving no chance for a second shot, but 

 after galloping 100 yards up-hill fell over, squealing, and 

 was dying ere we reached the spot. This was a female, 

 with only poor horns, though those details could not 

 before be seen. Both lungs were penetrated. These 

 organs, in a rhino, extend low down. 



An hour later, while trudging along in flood-water 

 that surged ankle-deep down the valley-floor, we 

 descried three men approaching from the opposite 

 direction. They proved to be my brother, with Ali and 

 Kenana, on their way to Solai. But we also thought 

 we were proceeding thither ! Obviously one party or 

 the other was hopelessly astray. But for that purely 

 fortuitous tumble-together I should inevitably have con- 

 tinued walking on in the wrong direction, till finally 

 " benighted " — soaked, ill, without food or shelter ; it 

 was a narrow escape. Such are the risks one must take 

 in wild lands. 



It was nearly noon when the rocky valley we were 

 traversing opened out into a broad basin, with a shallow 

 reed-embowered lake in its midst, the whole encircled by 

 stony mountains ; and we saw, sheltered by a cleft in 

 the western escarpment, our white tents established at 

 Solai. 



