We Had A Delightful
Picnic, And My Guests Greatly Enjoyed Their Night
In The Open, Although One Of Them Got Rather
A Bad Fright From A Rhino Which Suddenly Snorted
Close To Our Camp, Evidently Very Annoyed At Our
Intrusion On His Domain.
In the morning they went off as soon as it was
light to try their luck along the river, while
I remained in camp to see to breakfast.
After
an hour or more, however, they all returned,
empty-handed but very hungry; so when they
had settled down to rest after a hearty meal, I
thought I would sally forth and see if I could
not meet with better success. I had gone only a
short distance up the right bank of the river,
when I thought I observed a movement among
the bushes ahead of me. On the alert, I stopped
instantly, and the next moment was rewarded by
seeing a splendid bush-buck advance from the
water in a most stately manner. I could only
make out his head and neck above the
undergrowth, but as he was only some fifty yards off,
I raised my rifle to my shoulder to fire. This
movement at once caught his eye, and for the
fraction of a second he stopped to gaze at me,
thus giving me time to aim at where I supposed
his shoulder to be. When I fired, he disappeared
so suddenly and so completely that I felt sure that
I had missed him, and that he had made off
through the bush. I therefore re-loaded, and
advanced carefully with the intention of following
up his trail; but to my unbounded delight I came
upon the buck stretched out dead in his tracks,
with my bullet through his heart. I lost no time
in getting back to camp, the antelope swinging
by his feet from a branch borne by two sturdy
coolies: and my unlucky friends were very much
astonished when they saw the fine bag I had
secured in so short a time. The animal was soon
skinned and furnished us with a delicious roast for
lunch; and in the cool of the evening we made
our way back to Tsavo without further adventure.
Some little time after this, while one of these
same friends (Mr. C. Rawson) happened to be
again at Tsavo, we were sitting after dark
under the verandah of my hut. I wanted
something from my tent, and sent Meeanh, my Indian
chaukidar, to fetch it. He was going off in the
dark to do so, when I called him back and
told him to take a lantern for fear of snakes.
This he did, and as soon as he got to the door of
the tent, which was only a dozen yards off, he
called out frantically, "Are, Sahib, burra sanp
hai!" ("Oh, Master, there is a big snake here!)
"Where?" I shouted.
"Here by the bed," he cried, "Bring the gun,
quickly."
I seized the shot-gun, which I always kept
handy, and rushed to the tent, where, by the
light of the lantern, I saw a great red snake, about
seven feet long, gazing at me from the side of my
camp-bed. I instantly fired at him, cutting him
clean in half with the shot; the tail part remained
where it was, but the head half quickly wriggled
off and disappeared in the gloom of the tent.
The trail of blood, however, enabled us to track
it, and we eventually found the snake, still full of
fight, under the edge of the ground-sheet. He
made a last vicious dart at one of the men who
had run up, but was quickly given the happy
despatch by a blow on the head. Rawson now
picked it up and brought it to the light. He
then put his foot on the back of its head and
with a stick forced open the jaws, when suddenly
we saw two perfectly clear jets of poison spurt
out from the fangs. An Indian baboo (clerk), who
happened to be standing near, got the full benefit
of this, and the poor man was so panic-stricken
that in a second he had torn off every atom of his
clothing. We were very much amused at this,
as of course we knew that although the poison was
exceedingly venomous, it could do no harm unless
it penetrated a cut or open wound in the flesh.
I never found out the name of this snake, which,
as I have said, was of a dark brick-red colour
all over; and I only saw one other of the same
kind all the time I was in East Africa. I came
upon it suddenly one day when out shooting. It
was evidently much startled, and stood erect,
hissing venomously; but I also was so much
taken aback at its appearance that I did not think
about shooting it until it had glided off and
disappeared in the thick undergrowth.
CHAPTER XV
UNSUCCESSFUL RHINO HUNTS
Although the jungle round Tsavo was a
network of rhino paths I had never so far been
successful in my efforts to obtain one of these
animals, nor was my ambition yet to be realised.
One day I was out exploring in the dense bush
some six or seven miles away from camp, and
found my progress more than usually slow, owing
to the fact that I had to spend most of my time
crawling on all-fours through the jungle. I was
very pleased, therefore, to emerge suddenly on a
broad and well-beaten track along which I could
walk comfortably in an upright position. In this
were some fresh rhino footprints which seemed
barely an hour old, so I determined to follow
them up. The roadway was beaten in places
into a fine white dust by the passage of many
heavy animals; and as I pushed cautiously
forward I fully expected to come face to face with
a rhino at every corner I turned.
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