FOR THE CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 9

FOR THE CHILDREN.

FOUGHT OUT IN THE SWAMP. ; "Air. but Hut's a big ugly iMsttt . down there!" Raul mv fireman. " , J looked over the side of the engine, cab", . and soL eyes on an enormous rhinoceros; [ (says the narrator of this little stun-, who 01100 served as engine- driver on the liarrow gauge railway which runs from Mom- . busii., on the Jvast coast of Africa, through ; equatorial forests and swamps to the Upper a Nile Valley). . - t A few .-seconds later as wo came round a. J curve, 1 saw that there was tome trouble with the mils three or four hundred yards to the , east of the place, and. stopped us quickly i as I could, but whs nearly ditched. 1 Three rails on one side ilmd been lorn > up, tics and all, and left . tilted .loosely i the ugly old boast bad apparently con'iu L wandering to the line, and not liking the i looks or the smell of the iron rail, had i given it, a lilt with her jioscjlkhii! • Jt must have required a tremendous efs tort to bit U.oso rails and Lies buried in , road-bed. Narrow-gauge,, of course, is not i quite so heavy and d<-cp-sef as standard-" ( gauge track : but there, is no doubt that 5 these creatures ate extremely strong. ':' Mollis, my fireman, the guard, and I were two hours getting that track repaired before. 1 dared run over it. About a week later Ike section men reported the track torn up again in much r the same way; and a few days after that r a passenger train was nearly derailed there. The next morning Mr. .Sawyer—an ollieial of the line, and two other Englishmen, 'came down on our train armed with guns ; to hunt for* the mischief-making '"rhinoceros among the .swamps and down the ' lake snores. 1 They did not find her. Mr. Sawyer was convinced, however, that the animal was a. dangerous one lo traffic, and on mv next trip he. gave ma his gun, with express ; orders that, if I saw the rhinoceros, 1 was | to stop my train and try to shoot it. There were then but three trains over ' that part of the toad, and the rules were ■ not quite as strict as if it had been a hum 1 {ditd-train line. 'j A locomotive cab is no place /or five- ! arms; but we put on;- elephant gun in the 'j tool-box, and carried it there for a week or more. Mollis uas on the look-out, and 'wit last cine day, on our outward run, he l i'spied the. quarry again, this .time down ' among the sloughs toward the hike. • ! "There she is!" he exclaimed, in great' ''"lee. -i i cannot say thai I was v*iy onlhu&ias- •' tie ; but oid-is are orders. J. stopped, the. II trail)., ' . b,'. ; Ij Hollis had brought out the gut'.. I took it from him, tried the lock, and looked up ■ my extra earl ridges. : " If'illis, you grinning young scoundrel,'' I said, "you've got to help'me in thk, rhinoceros-Jmntiug, so come on!" j We started down through the swamp. jThe rhinoceros had scented the train and I made oil'; but we went, round tc the''windward through bog-grass, mud,- and water, (for half a mile or more, peeping ahead and •|listening all the time. ; "There she is!" suddenly whispered Hollis, excitedly. " ' ' j Sure enough, we caught a glimpse of Hi* | brute's black back over some reeds. T | wasn't particularly joyful, for the running i was bad if the brute should charge us. Hollis was: a perfect fever of excitement, but dared not even whisper. I deItermined to risk' a shot. ;.' ! '"Stoop down, and I'll rest the gun across ! your back," I whispered to mv fireman. He looked at me with pretty '''wide-open leyes, but he was "game," and did as I ! told him. j 1 them tried to aim at a point just back (of the rhinoceros' fore-shoulder; and 1 shall 'never forget how Hollis' red hair stood up as ho squatted there with the big gun across his back, waiting for roe to shoot. if. must do him the justice t< say that he [kept quite 'still. ..;• I fired. Tin-' recoil of the big gun nearly knocked lis both over. We heard .a territie snort, followed by a hoarse, bawling noise, as if of rage, 'then we turned and we bolted like two madmen for the railway. Some parts of the way we were kneedeep in mud, but we never stopped until we were back in the locomotive and up lithe cab. Not wanting to be chaffed. 1 told Hollis Ito say nothing of the adventure; but the guard of the train must have told, for Mr Sawyer pot wind of it and chatted me unmercifully. He scoffed at the idea -that L had done the rhinoceros any harm, and 1 did not much believe so myself. I But on the return run, three days late;, as we passed the placv, we saw thirty to fifty hyenas down in the ■ swamp, and knew well enough from this circumstance that the body of some largo animal was lying there. I concluded that it was that of the rhinoceros, for we never saw her again. ~Chums. ■_ /