made of cast iron, and the two awful horns, now more
distinct, cut the background like scimitars.

The rhinoceros, like the aboriginal native of the Congo, has come straight
down from pre-Adamite days almost without change. He is half blind now; he
can scarcely see twenty yards, he is still moving in the night of the
ancient world, and the smell of a man excites the wildest apprehension in
his vestige of a mind. He scents you, flings his heavy head from side to
side, and then to all appearances he charges you.

Nothing could appear more wicked, ferocious, and full of deadly intent
than this charge; yet, in reality, the unfortunate brute is not seeking
you at all, but running away from you; for the rhino when running away
always runs in the direction from which the wind is blowing. You are in
that direction, else your scent could not reach him; as your scent grows
stronger and stronger, the more alarmed does he become and the quicker he
runs. Now he sights you, or you fire. If you miss, God help you, for he
charges the flash with all his fright suddenly changed to fury.

They had got within four hundred yards from the brute when a faint puff of
wind stirred the grass, and instantly the rhino shifted his position.

"He's got our scent," said Berselius, taking the cordite rifle from Felix,
who handed his gun also to Adams. "He's got it strong. We will wait for
him here."

The rhino, after a few uneasy movements, began to "run about." One could
see that the brute was ill at ease; he went in a half-circle, and then,
the wind increasing, and bringing the scent strong, he headed straight for
Berselius and his companions, and charged.

The sound of him coming was like the sound of a great drum beaten by a
lunatic.

"Don't fire till I give the word," cried Berselius, "and aim just behind
the shoulder."

Adams, who was to the left of the charging beast, raised the rifle and
looked down the sights. He knew that if he missed, the brute would charge
the flash and be on him perhaps before he could give it the second
barrel.

It was exactly like standing before an advancing express engine. An
engine, moreover, that had the power of leaving the metals to chase you
should you not derail it.

Would Berselius never speak! Berselius all the time was glancing from the
rhino to Adams.

"Fire!"

The ear-blasting report of the elephant gun echoed from the forest, and
the rhino, just as if he had been tripped by an invisible wire