ving rapidly in our direction. At the end of a minute we could
make it out as the second rhinoceros. He had run heaven knows how
many miles away, and now he was returning; whether with some idea of
rejoining his companion or from sheer chance, I do not know. At any
rate, here he was, still ploughing along at his swinging trot. His
course led him along a side hill about four hundred yards from where
the oryx lay. When he was directly opposite I took the Springfield and
fired, not at him, but at a spot five or six feet in front of his
nose. The bullet threw up a column of dust. Rhino brought up short with
astonishment, wheeled to the left, and made off at a gallop. I dropped
another bullet in front of him. Again he stopped, changed direction, and
made off. For the third time I hit the ground in front of him. Then he
got angry, put his head down and charged the spot.

Five more shots I expended on the amusement of that rhinoceros; and
at the last had run furiously charging back and forth in a twenty-yard
space, very angry at the little puffing, screeching bullets, but quite
unable to catch one. Then he made up his mind and departed the way he
had come, finally disappearing as a little rapidly moving black speck
through the gap in the hills where we had first caught sight of him.

We finished caring for the oryx, and returned to camp. To our surprise
we found we were at least seven or eight miles out.

In this fashion days passed very quickly. The early dewy start in the
cool of the morning, the gradual grateful warming up of sunrise, and
immediately after, the rest during the midday heats under a shady tree,
the long trek back to camp at sunset, the hot bath after the toilsome
day-all these were very pleasant. Then the swift falling night, and the
gleam of many tiny fires springing up out of the darkness; with each its
sticks full of meat roasting, and its little circle of men, their skins
gleaming in the light. As we sat smoking, we would become aware that
M'ganga, the headman, was standing silent awaiting orders. Some one
would happen to see the white of his eyes, or perhaps he might smile so
that his teeth would become visible. Otherwise he might stand there an
hour, and no one the wiser, for he was respectfully silent, and exactly
the colour of the night.

We would indicate to him our plans for the morrow, and he would
disappear. Then at a distance of twenty or thirty feet from the front
of our tents a tiny tongue o