_ CHAPTER THIRTY SIX. DINNY RELATES HIS ADVENTURE
Dinny's story was hardly believed when he walked into camp, but Chicory was there to corroborate his words, and the astonishment felt was intense.
"You--you shoot a rhinoceros, Dinny!" said his master.
"Shure and why not, yer hanner?" said Dinny. "Didn't I borry the gun a' purpose for that same? and didn't the big baste stale my gyarments in the most ondacent way?"
"But how? Where? Where?" was asked by father and sons, in a breath.
"Shure an' I'm the laste bit weary wid my exertions," said Dinny, "and I'll jist light me pipe and sit down and rest, and tell ye the while."
All in the most deliberate way, Dinny proceeded to light his pipe and rest; and then, with Chicory sitting in front with his arms tightly embracing his knees, and his eyes and mouth open, Dinny related his adventure with the rhinoceros.
The late Sir Walter Scott in speaking of embellishing and exaggerating a story called it adding a cocked-hat and walking-stick.
Dinny put not merely a cocked-hat and walking-stick to his story, but embellished it with a crown, sceptre, and royal robes of the most gorgeous colours. It was wonderful what he had done; the furious conduct of the rhinoceros, the daring he had displayed, the precision with which he had sought out vital parts to aim at. A more thrilling narrative had never been told, and Chicory's eyes grew rounder and his mouth wider open in his astonishment and admiration, the hero going up wonderfully in the boy's esteem, especially as he read in Dinny's looks the promise of endless snacks and tastes when he was hungry.
But all the same, Dinny's flights of fancy grew a little too lofty for his other hearers.
"Oh, I say, Dinny, come now," said Dick, as his father sat back listening with a good-humoured smile upon his lip. "I'm not going to believe that a rhinoceros rose up on its hind legs and fought at you with its fore paws, while you stood still and aimed at it."
"Shure, Masther Dick, dear, did you ever know me say anything that wasn't thrue? If ye doubt me word, there's Masther Chicory there, as brave a boy as ever stepped in--I mane out of shoe leather, and spread his little black toes about in the sand. He was there all the toime, and ye can ax him if he didn't see it."
"Yes," said Chicory, "nosros try to get through big tree, and Dinny shoot um."
"There," said Dinny triumphantly, "what did I tell you? Why, if ye don't believe me, there's the baste itself lying as dead as a hammer where I shot him."
"Then it's only a little pig or a young rhinoceros, Dinny," said Jack.
"Little pig!" cried Dinny. "By this an' by that, he's as big as the waggon there, tub an' all. Sure a bigger and more rampaging baste niver fought wid a human man, and tried hard to ate him."
"Why that shows what stuff you are telling us, Dinny. A rhinoceros wouldn't eat a man; he'd trample him to death," cried Dick, who had been a studious boy for years. "A rhinoceros is an herbivorous beast, and has a prehensile upper lip."
"A what sort o' baste?" said Dinny, staring.
"Herbivorous."
"Shure an' what's that got to do wid it? I tell you it tried to ate me at one mouthful, in spite of his what sort o' upper lip. Shure the poor baste couldn't help having that the matter wid his lip. Why as soon as I set eyes on him, 'Ah, Dinny,' I says, 'yer work's cut out, me boy,' I says, 'for if ever there was a baste wid a stiff upper lip that's the one.'"
"But I said a prehensile upper lip, Dinny," cried Dick.
"Shure I heard what ye said, Master Dick. I know. And a pretty rampaging baste he was. Wirra! If ye'd seen him foight. If ye'd heard him roar, and saw how I battled wid him till I'd laid him low wid tin bullets in his jacket. Ah, it was wonderful. But ye shall see the baste."
"Yes, I want to see him, Dinny," said Jack.
"Shure an' I'll be glad to take ye, Masther Jack, as soon as it's light. But he was a brave baste, and fought well; and I felt sorry-like when I seen him go down."
"Did you though, Dinny?"
"Shure an' I did, Masther Dick, for I says to myself, 'Ye're a brave boy, an' I dessay ye've got a mother somewhere as is very proud of ye, just as I've got wan meself. But I must shute ye,' I says, 'for the sake of the gintlemen wid the waggon, and the mischief ye've done,' and so I did; an' there he lies, Masther Dick, stretched out on his side; and pace to his ashes. I've done."
"Well, boys," said Mr Rogers, speaking for the first time for some minutes, "I think we ought to congratulate ourselves upon the great accession we have discovered in Dinny. In future he shall accompany us in our attacks upon the lions and other furious beasts. I should not think of going after elephant now without Dinny."
That gentleman's face was a study, as he listened to his master's words. His nostrils twitched, his brows grew full of wrinkles, and his jaw dropped, letting his pipe fall from his lips; and though he picked it up directly after, the tobacco had gone out, and Dinny looked as if all the enjoyment had gone out of his life.
Beyond the roaring of a lion or two, the night passed off very quietly, and as soon as it was broad day Chicory stood ready to lead the party to see the rhinoceros.
"Come, Dinny, aren't you ready?" cried Dick.
"Shure an' I don't want to go, Masther Dick. I seen enough of the baste last night."
"Yes, but you must come and show us."
"Shure an' Masther Chicory there will lade you to the very spot, and I couldn't do any more. He lies did bechuckst two big lumps of sthone, an', as I said, he's as big as a waggin."
"Oh, but Dinny must come," said Mr Rogers.
"Shure an' how will I get the breakfast riddy if I come, sor?" persisted Dinny. "I did my duty last night. You gintlemen must go and fetch him home."
But Dinny's protestations passed unheeded, and he had to go with the party, shouldering his rifle like a raw recruit, but glancing uneasily to right and left as they went along.
Dick observed this, and said quietly,--
"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. _