TWO RHINOS 
95 
be not the slightest breath of life left in it; so I walked 
up, wondering what its horns measured, and how I could 
get it skinned and reach camp before dark. 
“ All these conjectures were rudely knocked on the 
head. When less than twenty yards away the huge beast 
gave a roll and got on to its feet. My rifle was up at 
once, and I put a bullet into the shoulder; but before 
I could get in a second shot the brute was charging 
straight. 
“ I commenced to run at a right angle to its course, 
thinking the rhino would probably go on in a straight 
line, as they usually do; but the first step I took I 
tripped and fell, and before I could regain my feet it 
was on top of me. 
“ I was nearly on my feet when it struck me. It hit 
me first with its nose, dropped with both knees on me, 
then, drawing back for the blow, threw me clean over 
its back, the horn entering the back of my left thigh, 
and I saw the animal well underneath me as I was 
flying through the air. It threw me a second time, but 
I cannot recollect that throw clearly : and then came on 
a third time. I was lying on my right side when the 
great black snout was pushed against me. Then I 
found myself upon my feet—how, I do not know—and 
staggered off. As I went an inky darkness came upon 
me. After going perhaps forty or fifty yards, expecting 
every moment to be charged again, I felt that I might 
as well lie down and let the beast finish its work without 
further trouble ; so I lay down.” 1 
The spot where the catastrophe occurred was fifteen 
miles from his camp, and that camp a twelve-hours’ march 
beyond Baringo. The nearest doctor was distant 136 
miles—at Fort Tern an. There, on the desert veld, a 
shattered wreck, with rmht arm smashed, ribs stove in 
and broken, and many minor injuries, lay Eastwood 
all alone, and exposed hour after hour to the fierce 
equatorial sun and with ghoulish vultures flapping close 
overhead. Not till late in the afternoon did his men 
1 Globe Trotter , March 1907. 
