Free Trust the Saint by Leslie Charteris Page A

briskly along the road and then off to the right on another path that branched off it. The going was slower for a while under the shade of some trees and presently of a building from which came the grunts and rustlings of unseen beasts; then quite soon they were in the open again, and next to them was a fence of massive timber. The fence enclosed a very uncertain oblong about a hundred yards in its greatest length and half of that at its widest, on one side of which was an equally massive rough-hewn structure like a stable.
    And standing out in the full glare of the moon, rotund, enormous, glistening, primeval, motionless, but evidently sensing their presence, was the animal.
    Vail waved his hand towards it.
    “There you are, Elias,” he said. “Let’s see what you can do with him.”
    “A rhinoceros,” Iantha breathed.
    “A beauty. Just arrived last week, and still not house-broken.”
    “But that isn’t-“
    “It has horns,” Vail pointed out. “Two of ‘em. You can see ‘em from here. Just arranged tandem, instead of sideways like a bull. That might even make it easier. But it fits the terms of the dare. Of course, if Elias is scared to take it on …”
    The matador stood looking at it, as immobile as the monster itself. The moonlight could not have shown any change of color, and his thin hawk’s face was like a mask of graven metal in which the eyes gleamed like moist stones.
    Then he climbed carefully over the barrier and began to walk slowly forward, opening his cape.
    In the stillness, Simon could hear the breathing of his companions.
    The rhinoceros allowed Usebio to advance several yards, with its glinting porcine stare turned directly towards him. Simon thought he had read somewhere that rhinos were near-sighted, but if so this one had certainly caught a scent that told it which way to look. Yet it stood for seconds like a grotesque prehistoric relic, with no movement except a stiffening of its absurdly disproportionate little piggy tail.
    Usebio stopped with his feet together, turned partly sideways, and spread the cape, holding it up by the shoulders, in the classic position of citing a bull.
    And with a snort the rhino exploded into motion.
    Its short chunky legs seemed to achieve no more than an ungainly trot, but the appearance was deceptive. There was barely time to realize what an acceleration it generated before it was right on top of Usebio. And Usebio stood his ground, turning harmoniously with the cape and leading the brute past him, gracefully but a little wide.
    Iantha gasped, almost inaudibly.
    The rhino blundered on a little way, turning in an astonishingly tight circle, and charged again. And again Usebio led it past him, a trifle closer, as if its nose were magnetized to the cloth, in a formal veronica.
    The rhino scrambled around again, it seemed even faster, and launched itself at the lure a third time without a pause.
    And suddenly Iantha Lamb screamed, a small sharp cry as if something clammy had touched her.
    It may have been that Usebio started to turn his head at the sound, or that it only divided his concentration for a fractional instant; certainly he was trying to work still closer to his animal, and he had not yet perfectly judged or adapted himself to the dimensions of a three-ton beast that was as broad as a boat. He carried the horns and the head safely past him, but it caught him solidly with its shoulder and flung him aside much as the fender of a speeding truck might have done. He fell eight feet away and lay still with his face in the dirt.
    There are things that happen in decimals of the time that it takes to report or read them. Like this:
    Simon looked at Vail and said: “Your cue?”
    Vail showed his teeth and said: “Not me, old boy. I only bet I’d take on claws.”
    Simon grabbed the spear with one hand and smashed Vail’s lips against his teeth with the other.
    Vail stumbled back, falling.
    Iantha’s face was enraptured.
    Simon vaulted the rails, and