98 
RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 
score a hit from horseback unless one is very close up ; 
and Sir Alfred made up his mind to try to drive out 
the bull from the rest of the herd. He succeeded ; but 
at this moment his horse put a fore-foot into a hole and 
turned a complete somersault, almost wrenching out his 
shoulder. Sir Alfred was hurled off head over heels, 
but even as he rolled over, clutching his rifle, he twisted 
himself round to his knees and took one last shot at the 
flying giraffe. This left Kermit alone, and he galloped 
hard on the giraffe’s heels, firing again and again with 
his Winchester. Finally, his horse became completely 
done out and fell behind ; whereupon Kermit jumped 
off, and, being an excellent long-distance runner, ran 
after the giraffe on foot for more than a mile. But he 
did not need to shoot again. The great beast had been 
mortally wounded, and it suddenly slowed down, halted, 
and fell over dead. As a matter of curiosity we kept 
the Winchester bullets both from Kermit’s giraffe and 
from mine. I made a point of keeping as many as 
possible of the bullets with which the different animals 
were slain, so as to see exactly what was done by the 
different types of rifles we had with us. 
When I reached camp I found that Heller had 
already started. Next morning I rode down to see him, 
and found him hard at work with the skins ; but as it 
would take him two or three days to finish them and 
put them in condition for transport, we decided that 
the safari should march back to the Potha camp, and 
that from there we would send Percival’s ox-waggon 
to bring back to the camp all the skins, Heller and his 
men accompanying him. The plan was carried out, 
and the following morning we shifted the big camp as 
proposed. 
Heller, thus left behind, came near having an un- 
