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.
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