he alert and looking round carefully and nervously for any trace of a
possible enemy. At length it reached the brink of the river in safety,
and stooped to drink. Just then I saw a jackal come up on its trail and
begin carefully to stalk it, not even rustling a fallen leaf in its
stealthy advance on the poor little antelope. All of a sudden, however,
the jackal stopped dead for a second, and then made off out of sight as
fast as ever he could go. I looked round to discover the cause of this
hurried exit, and to my surprise saw a large and very beautiful leopard
crouching down and moving noiselessly in the direction of our tree. 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 e