The Lordly Buffalo 283 



standing nearly broadside on toward me. The 

 bullet told on his body with a loud crack, the dust 

 flying up from his hide; but it did not work him 

 any immediate harm, or in the least hinder him from 

 making off ; and away went all three, with their tails 

 up, disappearing over a slight rise in the ground. 



Much disgusted, we trotted back to where the 

 horses were picketed, jumped on them, a good deal 

 out of breath, and rode after the flying game. We 

 thought that the wounded one might turn out and 

 leave the others; and so followed them, though 

 they had over a mile's start. For seven or eight 

 miles we loped our jaded horses along at a brisk 

 pace, occasionally seeing the buffalo far ahead; and 

 finally, when the sun had just set, we saw that all 

 three had come to a stand in a gentle hollow. 

 There was no cover anywhere near them; and, as 

 a last desperate resort, we concluded to try to run 

 them on our wornout ponies. 



As we cantered toward them they faced us for 

 a second and then turned round and made off, while 

 with spurs and quirts we made the ponies put on 

 a burst that enabled us to close in with the wounded 

 one just about the time that the lessening twilight 

 had almost vanished ; while the rim of the full moon 

 rose above the horizon. The pony I was on could 

 barely hold its own, after getting up within sixty 

 or seventy yards of the wounded bull; my compan- 

 ion, better mounted, forged ahead, a little to one 

 side. The bull saw him coming and swerved from 

 his course, and by cutting across I was able to get 



