TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 129 



munching sound betrayed the occupation of our 

 prey. 



Aching all over, I silently crept on. In the stillness 

 I could more plainly hear the crunching of the thorns 

 as they made a meal for the great pachyderm. But I 

 saw nothing, and how I was to penetrate the wait-a-bit 

 with any degree of safety I could not see. Few people 

 would care to meet a rhinoceros at such disadvantage, 

 and I had to add to other drawbacks the fact that I 

 had for safety's sake to let the hammers of my rifle 

 down ere negotiating such dense undergrowth. It 

 would be highly dangerous to proceed with the rifle 

 cocked, but I wanted it very much cocked indeed on 

 my first introduction to so vast and important an 

 animal. The thing was to circumvent the wood — if I 

 may call the place by so home-like a word — and on 

 reaching one spot where the thorn grew sparser, I 

 decided to penetrate here. I could not bear to leave 

 it longer, and could not wait all day ; besides, I prefer 

 to meet a rhino in some place where there is a pre- 

 tence at cover anyway to trying conclusions with him 

 in a patch of conspicuously open ground. 



My men showed no sign of fear, and following me 

 came on as carefully and steadily as ever. Both were 

 armed, inadequately it is to be feared, but the onus of 

 the business was to fall, presumably, on me. At last ! 

 In one dazzling minute of surprise I saw the huge 

 lumbering bulk we know as the rhinoceros. I have a 

 bowing acquaintance with his relatives in many zoos, 

 yet he seemed to me a stranger. Surely they never 

 were so colossal, so mighty, so altogether awe-inspiring. 



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