P.O.M. was sleeping. She was always lovely to look at asleep, sleeping
quietly, close curled like an animal, with nothing of the being dead look
that Karl had asleep. Pop slept quietly too, you could see his soul was
close in his body. His body no longer housed him fittingly. It had gone on
and changed, thickening here, losing its lines, bloating a little there, but
inside he was young and lean and tall and hard as when he galloped lion on
the plain below Wami, and the pouches under his eyes were all outside, so
that now I saw him asleep the way P.O.M. saw him always. M'Cola was an old
man asleep, without history and without mystery. Droopy did not sleep. He
sat on his heels and watched for the safari.
We saw them coming a long way off. At first the boxes just showed above
the high grass, then a line of heads, then they were in a hollow, and there
was only the point of a spear in the sun, then they came up a rise of ground
and I could see the strung out line coming towards us. They had gone a
little too far to the left and Droopy waved to signal them toward us. They
made camp, Pop warning them to be quiet, and we sat under the dining tent
and were comfortable in the chairs and talked. That night we hunted and saw
nothing. The next morning we hunted and saw nothing and the next evening the
same. It was very interesting but there were no results. The wind blew hard
from the east and the ground was broken in short ridges of hills coming down
close {from} the forest so you could not get above it without sending your
scent on ahead of you on the wind to warn everything. You could not see into
the sun in the evening, nor on the heavy shadowed hillsides to the west,
beyond which the sun was setting at the time the rhino would be coming out
of the forest, so all the country to the westward was a loss in the evening
and in the country we could hunt we found nothing. Meat came in from Karl's
camp by some porters we sent back. They came in carrying quarters of tommy,
grant, and wildebeeste, dusty, the meat seared dry by the sun, and the
porters were happy, crouched around their fires roasting the meat on sticks.
Pop was puzzled why the rhino were all gone. Each day we had seen less and
we discussed whether it could be the full moon, that they fed out at night
and were back in the forest in the morning before it was light, or that they
winded us, or heard the men, and were simply shy and kept in the forest, or
what was it? ' Me putting out the theories, Pop pricking them with his wit,
sometimes considering them from politeness, sometimes with interest, like
the one about the moon.
We went to bed early and in the night it rained a little, not a real
rain but a shower from the mountains, and in the morning we were up before
daylight and had climbed up to the top of the steep grassy ridge that looked
down on to the camp, on to the ravine of the river bed, and across to the
steep opposite bank of the stream, and from where we could see all the hilly
slopes and the edge of the forest. It was not yet light when some geese flew
overhead and the light was still too grey to be able to see the edge of the
forest clearly in the glasses. We had scouts out on three different hill
tops and we were waiting for it to be light enough for us to see them if
they signalled.
Then Pop said, 'Look at that son of a bitch', and shouted at M'Cola to
bring the rifles. M'Cola went jumping down the hill, and across the stream,
directly opposite us, a rhino was running with a quick trot along the top of
the bank. As we watched he speeded up and came, fast trotting, angling down
across the face of the bank. He was a muddy red, his horn showed clearly,
and there was nothing ponderous in his quick, purposeful movement. I was
very excited at seeing him.
'He'll cross the stream,' Pop said. 'He's shootable.'
M'Cola put the Springfield in my hand and I opened it to make sure I
had solids. The Rhino was out of sight now but I could see the shaking of
the high grass.
'How far would you call it?'
'All of three hundred.'
'I'll bust the son of a bitch.'
I was watching, freezing myself deliberately inside, stopping the
excitement as you close a valve, going into that impersonal state you shoot
from.
He showed, trotting into the shallow, boulder-filled stream. Thinking
of one thing, that the shot was perfectly possible, but that I must lead him
enough, must get ahead, I got on him, then well ahead of him, and squeezed
off. I heard the {whonk} of the bullet and, from his trot, he seemed to
explode forward. With a whooshing snort he smashed ahead, splashing water
and snorting. I shot again and raised a little column of water behind him,
and shot again as he went into the grass; behind him again.
'Piga,' M'Cola said. 'Piga!'
Droopy agreed.
'Did you. hit him?' Pop said.
'Absolutely,' I said. 'I think I've got him.'
Droopy was running and I re-loaded and ran off after him. Half the camp
was strung out across the hills waving and yelling. The rhino had come in
right below where they were and gone on up the valley towards where the
forest came close down into the head of the valley.
Pop and P.O.M. came up. Pop with his big gun and M'Cola carrying mine.
'Droopy will get the tracks,' Pop said. 'M'Cola swears you hit him.'
'Piga!' M'Cola said.
'He snorted like a steam engine,' P.O.M. said. 'Didn't he look
wonderful going along there?'
'He was late getting home with the milk,' Pop said. 'Are you {sure} you
hit him? It was a godawful long shot.'
'I {know} I hit him. I'm {pretty} sure I've killed him.'
'Don't tell any one if you did,' Pop said. 'They'll never believe you.
Look! Droopy's got blood.'
Below, in the high grass, Droop was holding up a grass blade towards
us. Then, stooped, he went on trailing fast by the blood spoor.
'Piga,' M'Cola said. 'M'uzuri!'
'We'll keep up above where we can see if he makes a break,' Pop said.
'Look at Droopy.'
Droop had removed his fez and held it in his hand.
'That's all the precautions he needs,' Pop said. 'We bring up a couple
of heavy guns and Droopy goes in after him with one article less of
clothing.'
Below us Droopy and his partner who was trailing with him had stopped.
Droopy held up his hand.
'They hear him,' Pop said. 'Come on.'
We started toward them. Droopy came toward us and spoke to Pop.
'He's in there,' Pop whispered. 'They can hear the tick birds. One of
the boys says he heard the faro, too. We'll go in against the wind. You go
ahead with Droopy. Let the Memsahib stay behind me. Take the big gun. All
right.'
The rhino was in high grass, somewhere in there behind some bushes. As
we went forward we heard a deep, moaning sort of groan. Droopy looked around<
br />
at me and grinned. The noise came again, ending this time like a
blood-choked sigh. Droopy was laughing. 'Faro,' he whispered and put his
hand palm open on the side of his head in the gesture that means to go to
sleep. Then in a jerky-flighted, sharp-beaked little flock we saw the tick
birds rise and fly away. We knew where he was and, as we went slowly
forward, parting the high grass, we saw him. He was on his side, dead.
'Better shoot him once to make sure,' Pop said. M'Cola handed me the
Springfield he had been carrying. I noticed it was cocked, looked at M'Cola,
furious with him, kneeled down and shot the rhino in the sticking place. He
never moved. Droopy shook my hand and so did M'Cola.
'He had that damned Springfield cocked,' I said to Pop. The cocked gun,
behind my back, made me black angry.
That meant nothing to M'Cola. He was very happy, stroking the rhino's
horn, measuring it with his fingers spread, looking for the bullet hole.
'It's on the side he's lying on,' I said.
'You should have seen him when he was protecting Mama,' Pop said.
'That's why he had the gun cocked.'
'Can he shoot?'
'No,' Pop said. 'But he would.'
'Shoot me in the pants,' I said. 'Romantic bastard.' When the whole
outfit came up, we rolled the rhino into a sort of kneeling position and cut
away the grass to take some pictures. The bullet hole was fairly high in the
back, a little behind the lungs.
'That was a hell of a shot,' Pop said. 'A hell of a shot. Don't ever
tell any one you made that one.'
'You'll have to give me a certificate.'
'That would just make us both liars. They're a strange beast, aren't
they?'
There he was, long-hulked, heavy-sided, prehistoric looking, the hide
like vulcanized rubber and faintly transparent looking, scarred with a badly
healed horn wound that the birds had pecked at, his tail thick, round, and
pointed, flat many-legged ticks crawling on him, his ears fringed with hair,
tiny pig eyes, moss growing on the base of his horn that grew out forward
from his nose. M'Cola looked at him and shook his head. I agreed with him.
This was the hell of an animal.
'How is his horn?'
'It isn't bad,' Pop said. 'It's nothing extra. That was a hell of a
shot you made on him though, brother.'
'M'Cola's pleased with it,' I said.
'You're pretty pleased with it yourself,' P.O.M. said.
'I'm crazy about it,' I said. 'But don't let me start on it. Don't
worry about how I feel about it. I can wake up and think about that any
night.'
'And you're a good tracker, and a hell of a fine bird shot, too,' Pop
said. 'Tell us the rest of that.'
'Lay off me. I only said that once when I was drunk.'
'Once,' said P.O.M. 'Doesn't he tell us that every night?'
'By God, I {am} a good bird shot.'
'Amazing,' said Pop. 'I never would have thought it. What else is it
you do?'
'Oh, go to hell.'
'Mustn't ever let him realize what a shot that was or he'll get
unbearable,' Pop said to P.O.M.
'M'Cola and I know,' I said.
M'Cola came up. 'M'uzuri, B'wana,' he said. 'M'uzuri sana.'
'He thinks you did it on purpose,' Pop said.
'Don't you ever tell him different.'
'Piga m'uzuri,' M'Cola said. 'M'uzuri.'
'I believe he feels just the way you do about it,' Pop said.
'He's my pal.'
'I believe he is, you know,' Pop said.
On our way back across country to our main camp I made a fancy shot on
a reedbuck at about two hundred yards, offhand, breaking his neck at the
base of the skull. M'Cola was very pleased and Droopy was delighted.
'We've got to put a stop to him,' Pop said to P.O.M. 'Where did you
shoot for, really?'
'In the neck,' I lied. I had held full on the centre of the shoulder.
'It was awfully pretty,' P.O.M. said. The bullet had made a crack when
it hit like a bat swung against a fast ball and the buck had collapsed
without a move.
'I think he's a damned liar,' Pop said.
'None of us great shots is appreciated. Wait till we're gone.'
'His idea of being appreciated is for us to carry him on our
shoulders,' Pop said. 'That rhino shot has ruined him.'
'All right. You watch from now on. Hell, I've shot well the whole
time.'
'I seem to remember a grant of some sort,' Pop was teasing. So did I
remember him. I'd followed a fine one out of the country missing shot after
shot all morning after a series of stalks in the heat, then crawled up to an
ant hill to shoot one that was not nearly as good, taken a rest on the ant
hill, missed the buck at fifty yards, seen him stand facing me, absolutely
still, his nose up, and shot him in the chest. He went over backwards and as
I went up to him he jumped up and went off, staggering.
I sat down and waited for him to stop and when he did, obviously
anchored, I sat there, using the sling, and shot for his neck, slowly and
carefully, missing him eight times straight in a mounting, stubborn rage,
not making a correction but shooting exactly for the same place in the same
way each time, the gun bearers all laughing, the truck that had come up with
the outfit holding more amused niggers, P.O.M. and Pop saying nothing, me
sitting there cold, crazy-stubborn-furious, determined to break his neck
rather than walk up and perhaps start him off over that heat-hazy, baking,
noontime plain. Nobody said anything. I reached up my hand to M'Cola for
more cartridges, shot again, carefully, and missed, and on the tenth shot
broke his damned neck. I turned away without looking toward him.
'Poor Papa,' P.O.M. said.
'It's the light and the wind,' Pop said. We had not known each other
very well then. 'They were all hitting the same place. I could see them
throw the dust.'
'I was a bloody, stubborn fool,' I said.
Anyway, I could shoot now. So far, and aided by flukes, my luck was
running now.
We came on into sight of camp and shouted. No one came out. Finally
Karl came out of his tent. He went back as soon as he saw us, then came out
again.
'Hey, Karl,' I yelled. He waved and went back in the tent again. Then
came toward us. He was shaky with excitement and I saw he had been washing
blood off his hands.
'What is it?'
'Rhino,' he said.
'Did you get in trouble with him?'
'No. We killed him.'
'Fine. Where is he?'
'Over there behind that tree.'
We went over. There was the newly severed head of a rhino that was a
rhino. He was twice the size of the one I had killed. The little eyes were
shut and a fresh drop of blood stood in the corner of one like a tea
r. The
head bulked enormous and the horn swept up and back in a fine curve. The
hide was an inch thick where it hung in a cape behind the head and was as
white where it was cut as freshly sliced coco-nut.
'What is he? About thirty inches?'
'Hell, no,' said Pop. 'Not thirty inches.'
'But he iss a very fine one, Mr. Jackson,' Dan said.
'Yes. He's a fine one,' Pop said.
'Where did you get him?'
'Just outside of camp.'
'He wass standing in some bush. We heard him grunt.'
'We thought he was a buffalo,' Karl said.
'He iss a very fine one,' Dan repeated.
'I'm damned glad you got him,' I said.
There we were, the three of us, wanting to congratulate, waiting to be
good sports about this rhino whose smaller horn was longer than our big one,
this huge, tear-eyed marvel of a rhino, this dead, head-severed dream rhino,
and instead we all spoke like people who were about to become seasick on a
boat, or people who had suffered some heavy financial loss. We were ashamed
and could do nothing about it. I wanted to say something pleasant and
hearty, instead, 'How many times did you shoot him?' I asked.
'I don't know. We didn't count. Five or six, I guess.'
'Five, I think,' said Dan.
Poor Karl, faced by these three sad-faced congratulators, was beginning
to feel his pleasure in the rhino drained away from him.
'We got one too,' said P.O.M.
'That's fine,' said Karl. 'Is he bigger than this one?'
'Hell, no. He's a lousy runt.'
'I'm sorry,' Karl said. He meant it, simply and truly.
'What the hell have you got to be sorry about with a rhino like that?
He's a beauty. Let me get the camera and take some pictures of him.'
I went after the camera. P.O.M. took me by the arm and walked close
beside me.
'Papa, please try to act like a human being,' she said. 'Poor Karl.
You're making him feel dreadfully.'
'I know it,' I said. 'I'm trying not to act that way.'
There was Pop. He shook his head. 'I never felt more of a four-letter
man,' he said. 'But it was like a kick in the stomach. I'm really delighted,
of course.'
'Me too,' I said. 'I'd rather have him beat me. You know that. Truly.
But why couldn't he just get a good one, two or three inches longer? Why did
he have to get one that makes mine ridiculous? It just makes ours silly.'
'You can always remember that shot.'
'To hell with that shot. That bloody fluke. God, what a beautiful
rhino.'
'Come on, let's pull ourselves together and try to act like white
people with him.'
'We were {awful,'} P.O.M. said.
'I know it,' I said. 'And all the time I was trying to be jolly. You
{know} I'm delighted he has it.'
'You were certainly jolly. Both of you,' P.O.M. said.
'But did you see M'Cola,' Pop asked. M'Cola had looked at the rhino
dismally, shaken his head and walked away.
'He's a wonderful rhino,' P.O.M. said. 'We must act decently and make
Karl feel good.'
But it was too late. We could not make Karl feel good and for a long
time we could not feel good ourselves. The porters came into camp with the
loads and we could see them all, and all of our outfit, go over to where the
rhino head lay in the shade. They were all very quiet. Only the skinner was
delighted to see such a rhino head in camp.
'M'uzuri sana,' he said to me. And measured the horn with shiftings of
his widespread hand. 'Kubwa sana!'
'N'Dio. M'uzuri sana,' I agreed.
'B'wana Kabor shoot him?'
'Yes.'
'M'uzuri sana.'
'Yes,' I agreed. 'M'uzuri sana.'
The skinner was the only gent in the outfit. We had tried, in all the
shoot, never to be competitive. Karl and
I had each tried to give the other the better chance on everything that
came up. I was, truly, very fond of him and he was entirely unselfish and
altogether self-sacrificing. I knew I could outshoot him and I could always
outwalk him and, steadily, he got trophies that made mine dwarfs in
comparison. He had done some of the worst shooting at game I had ever seen
Green Hills of Africa Page 6