Chicory saw it first, and shouted a word of warning, which made Dinny wheel round, and run away as hard as he could go, till the shouts of the others brought him back, looking terribly ashamed.
“Oh, it’s wan o’ thim things, is it?” he said, looking at the writhing decapitated viper. “Shure I thought it was the jumping sort that springs up at yer ois, and stings ye before yer know where ye are. There was a cousin, of me mother’s went to live in Hampshire, and she got bit by wan o’ thim bastes in the fut, and it nearly killed her. Ye can’t be too careful.”
Dinny felt as if he was being laughed at for the rest of the way, and looked quite sulky; but the sight of the great fallen tree, and the huge rhinoceros surrounded by vultures busily working a way through the tough hide, revived him, and he marched forward to examine his bullet holes with the look of pride worn by a conqueror.
It was quite refreshing to see him walk up the hind leg of the rhinoceros, and then along its huge horny-hided body to the shoulder, where, lowering the rifle he carried, Dinny placed the stock upon the creature’s neck, and rested his arm upon the barrel, regarding his fallen foe in quite a contemplative manner.
“Mind that rifle don’t go off, Dinny,” cried Jack.
Dinny leaped off the rhinoceros and stared.
“It’s a very dangerous thing to rest your arms on the muzzle of a gun,” said Dick, who enjoyed poor Dinny’s discomfiture.
“Well, Dinny,” said his master, “I congratulate you upon having slain a monster. Where did you stand?”
“Oh, over yonder somewhere,” said Dinny cavalierly. “Anywhere to get a good soight ov him.”
“Stood here behind tree where nosros no get at um,” said Chicory, innocently, in his eagerness to explain all he could.