Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



which I answered. I couldn't move ; but soon 

 Abdi Adan and Spots arrived and extricated me, 

 torn to bits. 



It appears the rhino on being first roused had 

 not gone far, but had circled round and come in 

 from a flank, so to speak. Abdi Adan had spotted 

 him waiting for us, and subsequent examination 

 proved that he had been invisible from where I 

 had been standing. He had charged straight over 

 where I had been, stopped just beyond the point 

 where I took my dive into the thorn bush, pawed 

 up the ground, and then walked away. My fleet- 

 ing view of him had left the impression of a very 

 large horn perhaps this was only natural ; any- 

 how, my relief that he hadn't got me was soon 

 followed by awful grief that I hadn't got him. 

 Abdi Adan and Spots now said that he was clearly 

 a bad rhino, i.e. of an evil disposition, and that we 

 should give him up. I, however, thought that as 

 he had gone such a short way after the first rouse, 

 he might be still hanging about, so decided to 

 " refresh " and renew the pursuit. Unfortunately 

 for the former, the cold oryx and water-bottle 

 man had vanished completely, having bolted in 

 the excitement, and was not again found till 

 we got back to camp that night, where we dis- 

 covered him posing as the sole survivor of the 

 party. 



The spoor now led straight through the thorn 

 156 



