"Better grab the opportunity while we have it, he said.
"Look at the horses," said Means.
The Colonel walked deliberately along the platform to where the
horses were tethered among the trees, and stood there watching
them for quite a while.
"You're right, Means," he said, when he returned to us. "They'll
need at least four or five days before we can put them at a
lion--well, we've got to chance it."
The next five days were the longest in the history of the
expedition. The Colonel, Means, and Ulyate remained at Kijabe
with the outfit. The rest of us traveled down the line to Nairobi
to procure more porters, more horse-feed, and more supplies; and
every day we watched the weather closely and speculated on the
probabilities of how long the lions would see fit to remain in
the district. The time was so short that all other plans had been
abandoned to take advantage of this one opportunity--the
expedition was plunging, so to speak, on this final chance to
succeed. But the weather held clear, and in the meanwhile the
preparations for this last attempt were pushed with the utmost
speed.
The hunters at Nairobi, together with the storekeepers and
farmers of the vicinity, had heard of the capture of the rhino.
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