The objective of the men seemed to be a rise of land which the lessening
mirage now permitted to appear as a small kopje, a solitary hill with
rocky outcrops. Toward this they plodded methodically: Kingozi slouching
ahead, Mali-ya-bwana close at his heels, very proud of his temporary
promotion from the ranks. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. At the signal
Kingozi stopped and looked back inquiringly over his shoulder.

Mali-ya-bwana was pointing cautiously to a low red clay ant hill
immediately in their path and about thirty yards ahead. To the casual
glance it looked no different from any of the hundreds of others of like
size and colour everywhere to be seen. Kingozi's attention, however, now
narrowed to a smaller circle than the casual. It did not need Mali-ya-
bwana's whispered "_faru_" (rhinoceros) to identify the mound.

Cautiously the two men began to back away. When they had receded some
twenty yards, however, the huge beast leaped to its feet. The rapidity of
its movements was extraordinary. There intervened none of the slow and
clumsy upheaval one would naturally expect from an animal of so massive a
body and such short, thick legs. One moment it slumbered, the next it was
afoot, warned by some slight sound or jar of the earth or--as some
maintain--by a telepathic sense of danger. Certainly, as far as they knew,
neither Kingozi nor Mali-ya-bwana had disturbed a pebble or broken a twig.

The rhinoceros faced them, snorting loudly. The sound was exactly that of
steam roaring from a locomotive's safety valve. Strangely enough, in spite
of the massive structure and the loose, thick skin of the beast, it
conveyed an impression of taut, nervous muscles. Though it faced directly
toward them, the men knew that they were as yet unseen. The rhinoceros'
eyesight is very short, or very circumscribed, or both; and only objects