"Sure!" returned Mr. Wallace heartily. "We'll keep the skin without paring it down, then. We can trade it to the natives for almost anything we ask. Aren't there some villages near here, Captain?"
Montenay called up the head Bantu and put some questions to him. They learned that there was a village several miles off where ivory might be found, and the Bantu was ordered to send a man over in the morning to bring back whatever ivory the natives might have to trade.
The next day Critch and Burt superintended the preparation of the rhino head and the skins of a number of various antelope varieties which Mr. Wallace and the captain shot. On the day following the Bantu messenger returned with a score of blacks who bore two small fifty-pound tusks. These they gladly traded for the rhino skin, which they would use for shields, and for some tobacco, beads, and sweaters of blazing red.
On that same day Burt evened up trophies with his chum. In the afternoon Mr. Wallace and Critch went off together when the trading had been finished. Barely had they left when a Bantu ran in with the news that there was a herd of buffalo near the stream which ran a few hundred yards past the camp. Captain Mac immediately called Burt and the gun-bearers and on they went with all haste.
After half an hour's walking they located the buffalo at the edge of the creek bed in a thick jungle swamp. Holding their guns in readiness the explorer and Burt advanced slowly. Theycould see two or three bulls watching them, the rest of the herd being hidden. Not until the hunters were within a hundred yards did the buffaloes move. Their massive white in-curving horns shone against the black bodies, and their wicked little eyes were fixed sullenly on the men.
Suddenly the nearest bull shook his head and began advancing. At this the gun-bearers scattered despite Montenay's shouted threats, and sought the shelter of ant hills. Captain Mac and Burt held their heavy guns and the former told Burt to take the first shot.
By good luck the boy's bullet struck the buffalo in the eye and penetrated the brain. Before Montenay could lift his weapon the others had turned and vanished.
"Well," laughed the explorer, "that's better than I expected. I was lookin' for a charge from 'em. Fine old bull too!"
The buffalo was a splendid trophy and the men at once began skinning him. That evening Mr. Wallace determined to finish the buffalo hide and then send back the specimens they had collected.
"I've got enough to stock the club for years," he laughed. "No use being a hog—hello, that's funny!"