ink. His
startled vision cleared itself instantly, and revealed to him the hideous,
two-horned mask of a black rhinoceros, peering forth just under the
orchid blossom.

Grom's first impulse was to wake the sleepers with a yell and shepherd
them to refuge in the tree--for the gigantic woolly rhinoceros, with
his armor of impenetrable hide, was a foe whom Man had not yet learned
to handle with any certainty. But a deeper instinct held Grom
motionless. He knew that the monster, whose eyesight was always dim
and feeble, could not see him distinctly, and was in all probability
staring in stupid wonder at the dancing flames of the camp-fire. As
long as no smell of man should reach the brute's sensitive nostrils to
rouse its rage, it was not likely to charge. There was no wind, and
the air about him was full of the spicy bitterness of the wood-smoke.
Grom decided that the safest thing was to keep perfectly still and
wait for the next move in the game to come from the monster. He
devoutly trusted that the sleepers behind him were sleeping soundly,
and that no one would wake and sit up to attract the monster's
attention.

Grom could now see plainly that it was the fire, and not himself,
which the rhinoceros was staring at. The shifting flames, and the
smell of the smoke, apparently puzzled it. After a moment or two, it
took a step forward, so that half of its huge, black, shaggy bulk
projected from the banked greenery as from a frame. Then it stood
motionless, blinking its little malignant eyes, till the silent
suspense grew to be a strain even upon Grom's well-seasoned nerves.

At last a large stick, laid across the fire, burned through and fell
apart. The flames leapt upwards with redoubled vigor, preceded by a
volley of crackling sparks. Knowing the temper of the rhinoceros, Grom
expected it to fly into a fury and charge upon the fire at once. His
mouth opened, indeed, for the yell of warning which should wake the
sleepers and send them leaping into the tree. But he checked himself
in time. The monster, for once in its life, seemed to be abashed. The
curling red flames were too elusive a foe for it. With a grunt of
uneasiness, it drew back into the leafage; and in a moment or two Grom
heard the giant bulk crashing off through the jungle at a gallop. The
unwonted sensation of alarm, once yielded to, had swollen to a panic,
and the dull-witted brute fled on for a mile or more before it could
forget the cause of its terror.