to the left, crashed through the bush down-hill and towards the open
country.

"Instantly the whole place became alive with alarming sounds. In every
direction troops of snorting buffaloes charged through the forest, wild
with fright, while the injured bull on the further side of the bush
began to bellow like a mad thing. I lay quite still for a moment,
devoutly praying that none of the flying buffaloes would come my way.
Then when the danger lessened I got on to my feet, shook myself, and
looked round. One of my boys, he who had thrown himself backward into
the bush, was already half way up a tree--if heaven had been at the top
of it he could not have climbed quicker. Gobo was lying close to me,
groaning vigorously, but, as I suspected, quite unhurt; while from the
aloe bush into which No. 3 had bounded like a tennis ball, issued a
succession of the most piercing yells.

"I looked, and saw that this unfortunate fellow was in a very tight
place. A great spike of aloe had run through the back of his skin
waist-belt, though without piercing his flesh, in such a fashion that it
was impossible for him to move, while within six feet of him the injured
buffalo bull, thinking, no doubt, that he was the aggressor, bellowed
and ramped to get at him, tearing the thick aloes with his great horns.
That no time was to be lost, if I wished to save the man's life, was
very clear. So seizing my eight-bore, which was fortunately uninjured, I
took a pace to the left, for the rhinoceros had enlarged the hole in the
bush, and aimed at the point of the buffalo's shoulder, since on account
of my position I could not get a fair side shot for the heart. As I did
so I saw that the rhinoceros had given the bull a tremendous wound
in the stomach, and that the shock of the encounter had put his left
hind-leg out of joint at the hip. I fired, and the bullet striking the