TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
130 
My hands trembled violently. I was for the moment 
unsteady. It all seemed so impossible I could kill the 
wondrous brute. 
The cocking of the hammers seemed to echo through 
the jungle. To let him hear us now would present 
difficulties unthinkable. Beads of perspiration rolled 
down my forehead, and my heart beat so loudly that I 
wondered if Clarence heard it. This would never do, 
so rating myself to myself — a method that never fails 
to pull me together— -I took long, steady, and careful 
aim at the pachyderm’s shoulder. The frontal shot is 
never of the slightest use, and I could not get in a 
heart one. I know now I had no business to fire at 
all, but my keenness was great, my ignorance greater, 
and Clarence had not protested once. 
I fired ! Instantly a noise like the letting off steam 
of a C.P.R. engine, twice as noisy as any other. The 
rhino sniffed the air with his huge muzzle, and I could 
clearly see his prehensile upper lip. In a moment he 
seemed on us — through us ; we scattered as he came. 
Then I saw what a truly awful business we were in 
for, and, recognising there must be no delay in getting 
the sights on him again, I dashed after the animal, 
who was now about to double on his tracks, and I 
crawled into the insignificant shelter of a thorn bush 
to await developments. 
The rhino had not as yet realised what was the 
matter, or quite gathered who his foes were. I fired 
again, another shoulder shot. This bullet “ told ” 
heavily, and the maddened creature, smarting and 
furious, passed me like the wind and charged like a 
