While he was gazing round him in a maze of alarm and wonder, he heard Lavie’s voice close to him. “You may be thankful for the narrowest escape I ever remember to have witnessed!” he said.
“Where, where is the rhinoceros?” stammered Nick.
“Down at the bottom of that pit, into which you would have tumbled yourself, if you hadn’t been running like a lamplighter. I’ll just see if the poor brute is alive or not, and if he is, put a charge through his brain.”
He peered cautiously down the hole, but all was still there. The animal had been impaled on the strong stake always placed at the bottoms of such traps, and it had probably penetrated the vitals. Satisfied on this point, he returned to Gilbert, who had now somewhat recovered his self-possession.
“Why didn’t you run when we first called to you?”
“I didn’t know you were calling to me. What made the brute attack me?”
“I don’t know. The black rhinoceroses very often attack men without any apparent reason, though the white seldom do so. But what were you carrying on your back?”
“A black hog, which I had shot—famous eating, you know. We had better go and fetch it now. It will last us—”
“A hog!” exclaimed De Walden, who with Warley and Wilmore had now joined them. “I don’t fancy there are any wild hogs about here; I never heard of any. Is this what you call a hog?” he continued, a minute or two afterwards, when they had reached the place where Nick had thrown his load down. “Why this is a young rhinoceros—about a week old, I should say! There is very little mystery now in the mother having charged after you. Well, you may indeed thank God for your escape! I would not have given a penny for your life under such circumstances. However, as we have the animal, we had better take as much of its flesh as we can carry. It is very excellent eating.”
“I should like to examine the pitfall, sir, if you have no objection,” said Warley. “I have never seen one, though I have often heard of them.”