CHAPTER XIX. 



IN THE NICK OF TIME. 



tHE bull, having vanquished his foe, seemed fired with the resolve to reconstruct 

 the neighborhood. 

 Dick Brownell was swinging his hat, and giving utterance to his con- 

 gratulating shouts, when the snorting animal lowered his head, and came for him 

 and his steed like a cyclone. 



"Confound you 1" muttered the youth; "if that's the way you treat a friend, 

 I'll turn enemy." 



And drawing up his rifle, he pulled the trigger. The aim was perfect, the ball 

 entering the lower part of the skull, and tearing its way along the spine. 



The bull took a single bound forward, staggered like a drunken person, went 

 down on his knees, and then over on his side, where, with a single bellow, he died. 



" I would have been glad to spare you," said Dick, " but I couldn't see my way 

 clear to do it." 



The youth observed Mr. Godkin approaching among the trees. The reports of 

 the gun had brought him to the vicinity, and he arrived in sight at the moment the 

 bull was shot. 



"You ought not to have killed him," said he, jocosely, "for he would have been 

 a valuable curiosity for Mr. Barnum." 



" Yes ; I should like to see the man, or party of men, who could make him 

 prisoner ; it would be like trying to chain a blizzard." 



"Jack Harvey is an expert in the use of the lasso." 



" He does seem to have an itching to try it on every wild animal he sees. It 

 would be just like him to drop the coil over a buffalo's horns, but I don't think he 

 would do it a second time." 



" No ; the African buffalo is among the most dangerous game in the country. 

 To me he always seemed as bad as the Asiatic tiger." 



At Mr. Godkin's invitation, Dick seated himself on a fallen tree beside his 

 friend, who, it was evident, had something to say to him. Dick was always glad 

 o/ the chance to talk with the gentleman. 



"I haven't had a shot," Mr. Godkin remarked, "since we parted company, 

 though I got near enough to three giraffes to bring one or two down. But there is 

 something so innocent and helpless about the animals that I dislike to kill them." 



" I feei the same ; I fired in such a hurry that I missed, but I didn't try a second 

 shot. But," added Dick, " you would have been interested had you seen the buffalo 

 gore that big lion to death." 



"I've seen it done," quietly replied Mr. Godkin; "a lion is a fool that, single- 

 handed, attempts to bring down a tull buffalo." 



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