The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1905-05-18


bad luckw cried Bevis. "My turn
now. Here's for the leader"
The Irishman's bullet brought down
a giant animal, which lay OH the ground
struggling, kicking, and making aAaw-
full uproar. The scene was now a Nri-
table pandemonium. Stamping rhin\-
crosses, screaming natives in treeA
Bevis shouting out mad jokes, and the
rapid reports Of the rifles combined to
produce bewildering uproar. Clouds
had by this time hidden the moon, and
We could hardly see to shoot. The in
truding animals were low in among
the campfires, and in the twinkling Of
an eye the flames to the last ember
were trodden out. Dimly We could see
our beds being stamped under foot and
scattered, and the packs hurled this
way and that. Then for few minutes
we fired little more surely, for the
moon showed itself again, ard five
dead animals soon lay stiff on the
ground, while not a few others were
badly wounded.
Having vented their rage on inani-
mate things, the great brutes began
to think of the men.
One of the natives, paralyzed with
fear, had been unable to climb tree.
and was now staring at the rhinocer-
oses over the top of thick prickly
bush. Our attention was drawn to the
man for the first time by one Of the
animals stopping short and shifting
round. 1t did not see the man, but
scented him, and with below of fury
it went for the bush like hurricane.
We yelled out to the native to save
himself, and, reused from his stupor,
he sprang to his feet and raced away,
with the animal after him. l slipped
little farther down the tree and called
to him, whereupon he swerved rapidly
from his course and came towards me,
while the leviathan stopped short,
plowing up the ground with its heavy
feet. Finally it turned, for all the
world like clumsy mastiff puppy,
and resumed the chase.
The screaming native ran towards my
tree, and 1 held out my hand and
dragged him up, telling him to climb
up higher. He did not reed to be told
twice, and went up as high as he could.
Luckily for him, as the sequel will
show, it was not tall tree.
The great animal, with ponderous
tread, came on after him. Arrived at
the foot Of the tree. it stood still. ap-
parently astonished at the natives dis
appearance, and then aimed a vicious
blow at the tree trunk with its sharp
horn. I did not intend to let it de-
molish my perch SO easily, so slipped
down to the bottom branch, and lean
ing forward, held my rifle point blank
at its ear and pressed the trigger. Such
shot is fatal, and / had the satisfac-
ton Of seeing it waver, take a few
steps, and then fall with crash, its
whole weight resting against the tree,
which bent like a cane. l clutched
wildly at the branch to prevent myself
falling, and nearly dropped my rife,
while a crashing, rendinG noise, fol.
lowed by a shrek from above, told
that some one had been dislodged by
the shock. Branch after branch was
snapped by the falling Of some heavy
body, until finally it hit the stronger
boughs and bounced off to the ground.
I realized then that the native in his
terror lad climbed too high up, where
the branches could hardly bear him,
and the sudden jerk had hurled him
down.
For a minute 1 thought another
rhinoceros would come and crush him
before he could get up again. but to
nv astonishment he rose to his feet
and limped away at good rate into
the bushes. Evidently he did not in
tend to trust to tree-tops again.
For a short while longer the rhinoc-
crosses wandered about the camp, and
then their interest shifted to our
wagon, which they surrounded with
the evident intention of upsetting it.
They had not sufficient sense, however,
TO realize that if they pushed on both
sides at once it would not go down, so
they did not succeed in overturnins it.
All this time we fired ut intervals into
the mass of animals, meanwhile specu-
lating among ourselves as to why such
Il large number of rhinocerOseS had
banded themselves together.
Presently, to our great relief, they
tired of their sport and moved on
farther into the wilderness. De
Rubempre and O'Sullivan followed
them for some distance to see what
they would do next. while 1 ordered,
coaxed, or bullied the frightened ma
tives into descending from their lofty
roosting places, where they much re-
sembled a flock of crows.
One by one they came down and
gathered round me, shivering with cold
and terror, and casting apprehensive
glances in the direction whence the
marauding animals had disappeared.
After a time, however, l induced
them to relight the fires, and then a
few Of them went to fetch the wagon
oxen. These by lucky chance had
been picketed at a distance in charge
of five men, because Of the more plenti-
full pasture there. The damage to our
camp was not so great as it might
have been, although the low tents un-
der which we had been sleeping, our
beds, and all the cooking utensils left