"What a lot of poisonous snakes there are amongst these stones!"
Dinny gave a spasmodic jump, and lifting his feet gingerly, deposited
them in the barest places he could find; and for the rest of the journey
he did not once take his eyes off the ground.
As it happened they had not gone fifty yards farther before they came
upon a great swollen puff-adder, lying right in their path.
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.
"Ah, ye avil little baste," muttered Dinny. "See if I give ye the laste
taste of anything I've got. Ah, yes," he said aloud, "I did get one
shot at him from behind that big tree; but I cud see him best out in the
open yander. Shure an' how big is the baste, sor?" he added, as Mr
Rogers ran a measuring tape along the animal from nose to tail.
"Just over eleven feet, Dinny," said Mr Rogers; and leaving the General
to hew off the great blunt horn, they returned to breakfast.