520 
African Game Trails 
toward the rhinos, well to leeward. But 
the wind shifted every which way; and sud¬ 
denly my gun bearers called my attention to 
the rhinos, a quarter of a mile off, saying, 
“He charging, he charging.” Sure enough, 
they had caught our wind, and were rush¬ 
ing toward us. I jumped off the horse and 
studied the oncoming beasts through my 
field-glass; but head on it was hard to tell 
about the horns. However, the wind 
shifted again, and when two hundred yards 
off they lost our scent, and turned to one 
side, tails in the air, heads tossing, evi¬ 
dently much wrought up. They were a 
large cow and a young heifer, nearly two- 
thirds grown. As they trotted sideways I 
could see the cow’s horns, and her doom 
was sealed; for they were of good length, 
and the hind one (it proved to be two feet 
long) was slightly longer than the stouter 
front one; it was a specimen which the 
Museum needed. 
So after them we trudged over the brown 
plain. But they were uneasy, and kept 
trotting and walking. They never saw us 
with their dull eyes; but a herd of wilde- 
beeste galloping by renewed their alarm; it 
leading to the water were deeply rutted by 
the hooves of the wild creatures that had 
travelled them for countless generations. 
The day after reaching this camp, Cun- 
inghame and I hunted on the plains. Be¬ 
fore noon we made out with our glasses two 
rhino lying down, a mile off. As usual 
with these sluggish creatures we made our 
preparations in leisurely style, and with 
scant regard to the animal itself. More¬ 
over we did not intend to kill any rhino un¬ 
less its horns were out of the common. I 
first stalked and shot a buck Roberts ga¬ 
zelle with a good head. Then we off sad¬ 
dled the horses and sat down to lunch under 
a huge thorn tree, which stood by itself, 
lonely and beautiful, and offered a shelter 
from the blazing sun. The game 
was grazing on every side; and I 
kept thinking of all the life of the 
wilderness, and of its many trage¬ 
dies, which the great tree must 
have witnessed during the centuries 
since it was a seedling. 
Lunch over, I looked to the load¬ 
ing of the heavy rifle, and we started 
