Remembering what he had heard of rhinos to the effect that they are short-tempered and fearless, Bob hurried the more and presently found himself in the broad trail beaten down by the rhino and not far behind him. Ahead, not twenty yards away, he could see the grotesque, broad quarters of the beast.
“The thinnest spot in the rhino’s armor is immediately behind the foreleg, and that is his most vulnerable spot,” Mr. Hampton had said on parting.
Bob remembered. He remembered, too, that the high-powered rifle he carried was guaranteed to shoot a steel-jacketted bullet that would penetrate even rhino hide. And the range was close enough. He breathed more freely, now that he had come to such close quarters. His momentary panic at thought of Jack’s danger began to disappear.
Anyhow, he said to himself, the rhino appeared likely to stalk clear out of the picture, without ever spotting the presence of his photographers to either side.
But Bob was mistaken. Suddenly the monster swerved to the right without warning and charged with amazing swiftness directly toward Jack who was not more than thirty yards away. His great head jerked at every lurch.
Bob started running through the grass at a tangent which would place him close to the beast before the latter could arrive at Jack’s post. He cast a glance in Jack’s direction, expecting to see the latter pick up his camera and decamp, but was amazed and alarmed to see Jack busily grinding away.
“Great guns,” he muttered, “that rhino must be charging directly into the camera. Why doesn’t Jack run?”
But Jack continued at his post, and the truth was, as Bob dashing forward in alarm suspected, that in making the most of his wonderful opportunity to obtain a film of the rhino charging head-on he had forgotten for a moment the important consideration of looking out for his own safety.
On came the rhinoceros, and Jack seeing him grow larger and larger in the eye of the camera until his bulk seemed to fill the whole world continued to crank the machine, exulting in the realization that he was obtaining what undoubtedly would be the finest film of the whole expedition to date, perhaps the finest and most thrilling of all including whatever pictures lay in the future.