At First
I Thought It Must Be Stalking Some Animal On The
Ground Below Us, But I Soon Realised That It Was
Mahina That The Brute Was Intent On.
Whether,
if left to himself, the leopard would actually have
made a spring at my sleeping gun-bearer, I
Do
not know; but I had no intention of letting him
have a chance of even attempting this, so I
cautiously raised my rifle and levelled it at him.
Absolutely noiseless as I was in doing this,
he noticed it - possibly a glint of moonlight on
the barrel caught his eye - and immediately
disappeared into the bush before I could get in a
shot. I at once woke Mahina and made him
come up to more secure quarters beside me.
For a long time after this nothing disturbed
our peace, but at last the quarry I had hoped for
made his appearance on the scene. Just below
us there was an opening in the elephant grass
which lined the river's edge, and through this the
broad stream shone like silver in the moonlight.
Without warning this gap was suddenly filled by
a huge black mass - a rhino making his way, very
leisurely, out of the shallow water. On he came
with a slow, ponderous tread, combining a certain
stateliness with his awkward strides. Almost
directly beneath us he halted and stood for an
instant clearly exposed to our view. This was
my opportunity; I took careful aim at his shoulder
and fired. Instantly, and with extraordinary
rapidity, the huge beast whirled round like a
peg-top, whereupon I fired again. This time I
expected him to fall; but instead of that I had
the mortification of seeing him rush off into the
jungle and of hearing him crash through it like
a great steam-roller for several minutes. I
consoled myself by thinking that he could not
go far, as he was hard hit, and that I should
easily find him when daylight arrived. Mahina,
who was in a wild state of excitement over the
burra janwar (great animal), was also of this
opinion, and as there was no longer any reason
for silence, he chatted to me about many strange
and curious things until the grey dawn appeared.
When we got down from our perch, we found the
track of the wounded rhino clearly marked by
great splashes of blood, and for a couple of miles
the spoor could thus be easily followed. At
length, however, it got fainter and fainter, and
finally ceased altogether, so that we had to abandon
the search; the ground round about was rocky,
and there was no possibility of telling which
way our quarry had gone. I was exceedingly
sorry for this, as I did not like to leave him
wounded; but there was no help for it, so we
struck out for home and arrived at Tsavo in the
afternoon very tired, hungry and disappointed.
Rhinos are extraordinary animals, and not
in any way to be depended upon.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 66 of 130
Words from 34613 to 35116
of 68125
