154 
ON SAFARI 
Being all separate, without means of communication, 
aggravated the miseries of the moment; spirits fell 
below zero, and the whole venture, in my then state, 
now appeared sheer madness—suicidal. Hope was all 
but dead within my breast when Farra, the syce, 
stopped and, pointing through the viewless torrent 
along the hillside, whispered, “ Kifaru ! ” (rhinoceros). 
The excitement of that word effected wonders, renewing 
life and hope and pulling me together. After a short 
stalk I descried a vast bulky form, half hidden amid thorn- 
scrub on the slope above. The head w r as not in sight; but 
indeed through that driving mist and deluge all details 
were invisible—one could scarce see to distinguish the 
foresight, and the ball struck very low, behind the 
fore-leg. The rhino whipped round and vanished as a 
rabbit might, giving no chance for a second shot, but 
after galloping 100 yards up-hill fell over, squealing, and 
was dying ere we reached the spot. This was a female, 
with only poor horns, though those details could not 
before be seen. Both lungs were penetrated. These 
organs, in a rhino, extend low down. 
An hour later, wdiile trudging along in flood-water 
that surged ankle-deep down the valley-floor, we 
descried three men approaching from the opposite 
direction. They proved to be my brother, with Ali and 
Kenana, on their way to Solai. But we also thought 
we were proceeding thither ! Obviously one party or 
the other was hopelessly astray. But for that purely 
fortuitous tumble-together I should inevitably have con¬ 
tinued walking on in the wrong direction, till finally 
“ benighted ”—soaked, ill, without food or shelter; it 
was a narrow escape. Such are the risks one must take 
in wild lands. 
It was nearly noon when the rocky valley we were 
traversing opened out into a broad basin, wdtli a shallow 
reed-embowered lake in its midst, the whole encircled by 
stony mountains; and we saw, sheltered by a cleft in 
the western escarpment, our white tents established at 
Solai. 
