THE BUFFALO-RUNNERS 71 



of the older rival. That is the buffalo challenge ! And 

 there presently follows a bellowing like the rumbling 

 of distant thunder, each keeping his eye on the other, 

 circling and guarding and countering each other s 

 moves, like fencers with foils. When one charges, the 

 other wheels to meet the charge straight in front; 

 and with a crash the horns are locked. It is then a 

 contest of strength against strength, dexterity against 

 dexterity. Not unusually the older brute goes into a 

 fury from sheer amazement at the younger s presump 

 tion. His guarded charges become blind rushes, and 

 he soon finds himself on the end of a pair of 

 piercing horns. As soon as the rumbling and paw 

 ing began, Colonel Bedson used to send his herders out 

 on the fleetest buffalo ponies to part the contestants; 

 for, like the king of beasts that he is, the buffalo does 

 not know how to surrender. He fights till he can fight 

 no more; and if he is not killed, is likely to be man 

 gled, a deposed king, whipped and broken-spirited and 

 relegated to the fag-end of the trail, where he drags 

 lamely after the subjects he once ruled. 



Some day the barking of a prairie-dog, the rustle 

 of a leaf, the shadow of a cloud, startles a giddy young 

 cow. She throws up her head and is off. There is a 

 stampede myriad forms lumbering over the earth 

 till the ground rocks and nothing remains of the buffalo 

 herd but the smoking dust of the far horizon nothing 

 but the poor, old, deposed king, too weak to keep up 

 the pace, feeble with fear, trembling at his own shadow, 

 leaping in terror at a leaf blown by the wind. 



After that the end is near, and the old buffalo must 

 realize that fact as plainly as a human being would. 

 Has he roamed the plains and guarded the calves from 



