istinct, as compared with the steps of the antelopes. A few
seconds sufficed to disclose them to our expectant eyes. A large herd
of giraffes trotted to the water's edge and began to drink. It was a
splendid sight to behold these graceful creatures stooping to drink, and
then raising their heads haughtily to a towering height as they looked
about from side to side. In the course of a couple of hours we saw
elands, springboks, gnus, leopards, and an immense variety of wild
creatures, some of which fawned on and played with each other, while
others fought and bellowed until the woods resounded with the din.

While we were silently enjoying the sight, and I attempting to make a
few entries in my note-book, our attention was attracted to a cracking
of the branches close to the right side of our hillock.

"Look out!" whispered Jack; but the warning was scarcely needed, for we
instinctively seized our rifles. A moment after our hearts leaped
violently as we heard a crashing step that betokened the approach of
some huge creature.

"Are we safe here?" I whispered to Jack.

"Safe enough if we keep still. But we shall have to cut and run if an
elephant chances to get sight of us."

I confess that at that moment I felt uneasy. The hillock on the summit
of which we lay was only a place of comparative safety, because no
animal was likely to ascend an elevated spot without an object in view,
and as the purpose of all the nocturnal visitors to that pond was the
procuring of water, we did not think it probable that any of them would
approach unpleasantly near to our citadel; but if any wild beast should
take a fancy to do so, there was nothing to prevent him, and the slight
screen of bushes by which we were surrounded would certainly have been
no obstacle in the way.

A hunter in the African wilds, however, has not much time to think.
Danger is usually upon him in a moment. We had barely time to full-cock
our rifles when the bushes near us were trodden down, and a huge black
rhinoceros sauntered slowly up to us. So near was he that we could have
sprung out from our hiding-place and have caught hold of him, had we
chosen to do so.

This enormous unwieldy monster seemed to me so large that he resembled
an elephant on short legs, and in the dim, mysterious moonlight I could
almost fancy him to be one of those dreadful monsters of the
antediluvian world of which we read so much in these days of geological
research. I hel