TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST 165 
and aimed with the little Springfield, keeping the Holland 
by me to be ready for events. I never left camp, on foot or 
on horseback, for any distance, no matter how short, with¬ 
out carrying one of the repeating rifles; and when on a 
hunt my two gun-bearers carried, one the other magazine 
rifle, and one the double-barrelled Holland. 
Tarlton, whose eye for distance was good, told me the 
hyena was over three hundred yards off; it was walking 
slowly to the left. I put up the three-hundred-yard sight, 
and drew a rather coarse bead; and down went the hyena 
with its throat cut; the little sharp-pointed, full-jacketed 
bullet makes a slashing wound. The distance was just 
three hundred and fifty long paces. As soon as I had 
pulled trigger I wheeled to watch the rhino. It started 
round at the shot and gazed toward us with its ears cocked 
forward, but made no movement to advance. While a 
couple of porters were dressing the hyena, I could not 
help laughing at finding that we were the centre of a 
thoroughly African circle of deeply interested spectators. 
We were in the middle of a vast plain, covered with sun- 
scorched grass and here and there a stunted thorn; in the 
background were isolated barren hills, and the mirage wa¬ 
vered in the distance. Vultures wheeled overhead. The 
rhino, less than half a mile away, stared steadily at us. 
Wildebeest—their heavy forequarters and the carriage of 
their heads making them look like bison—and hartebeest 
were somewhat nearer, in a ring all round us, intent upon 
our proceedings. Four topi became so much interested that 
they approached within two hundred and fifty yards and 
stood motionless. A buck tommy came even closer, and a 
zebra trotted by at about the same distance, uttering its 
