Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



exact direction a man is pointing when he is 

 behind and pointing at an object beyond you. 

 Besides, his point of view was different, and he 

 was lying down, looking under the bushes, while 

 I was standing ; anyway, I could see nothing, so 

 again I looked back for information. Both men 

 had gone ! I looked forward to Spots : he had 

 almost disappeared, was busy flattening himself 

 under a bush, and so obviously trying to look as 

 if he wasn't there that I remember for a second 

 I felt amused only for a second, however, for I 

 at once felt my situation very dangerous. I was 

 the only one of the party on my legs and at all 

 visible. There was evidently a rhino very close, 

 and I hadn't an idea where the danger was 

 coming from. 



Here I may remark that I attach no blame 

 whatever to my men. The only beast a Somali 

 really fears is the rhino. Besides this, had 

 they come to me their movement would have 

 precipitated a charge, and they afterwards said 

 they imagined I had seen the animal. To my 

 left was a transparent thorn bush, then about 

 twenty yards fairly clear, then dense thorn again. 

 In a moment all this took place in an infinitesi- 

 mally short space of time a huge rhino came out 

 of the dense bush at a lumbering trot, shaking 

 his head up and down and heading straight for 

 me. My rifle, as I have explained, was not 



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