7 6 The King of the Thundering Herd 



of dust shut out the light of the setting sun, 

 and made a dark pall over all the landscape, 

 which was like the descending of the mantle 

 of death. 



Bennie gritted his teeth together and 

 tried hard not to let the muzzle of his rifle 

 shake as he pointed it out between the 

 spokes of the hind wheel on his side of the 

 wagon. 



On come the terrible battalions of gallop- 

 ing hoofs, the massive heads and black 

 beards of mighty bulls glowering through 

 the clouds of dust. Each second the pound- 

 ing of their hoofs swelled in volume, and 

 each second the vibrations of the solid 

 earth became more pronounced. Like the 

 smoke of a great conflagration, the dust- 

 clouds settled over the prairies until the 

 crouching, trembling human beings, so im- 

 potent in this vast mad rush of wild beasts, 

 could see the frontlets of the bulls but a 

 few rods away. 



