ATTACKED BY RHINOS 149 



Osa felt she should fish; she was very conscientious 

 about this as she said we needed fish for every camp 

 in which we could get them. We left camp about 

 the same time and walked about a mile together 

 before she branched down to the river, riding on her 

 mule. Ndundu and Butoto were with her. She 

 had perhaps gone a quarter of a mile when I saw her 

 and the boys running, a rhino after them full tilt. 

 Ndundu fired twice but missed. Butoto scrambled 

 to the top of a big ant hill. 



Although I was afoot I started off at a run to the 

 rescue, my boys following. But of course I was too 

 far away to avert disaster. An3rway the mule was so 

 terrified that the rhino had no chance to catch him. 

 The chief danger lay in the chance that Osa might 

 lose her seat and fall off. About this time Osa saw 

 me coming and the rhino apparently heard us. It 

 wheeled and disappeared in the long grass near the 

 river. 



No wonder Osa hated rhino. She was always hav- 

 ing encounters of this sort with them. When she 

 came up to me she was so angry that she wanted me 

 to go right back with her and shoot the beast ; but in a 

 few moments she cooled off and laughed about it. 



.Here I discovered a small matter that might have 

 led to serious consequences besides the fight it led to 

 between Osa and Ndundu. It seemed that he had 

 placed only four cartridges in the gim that morning 



