The New King 183 



Buck pressed in among them, pushing 

 his great hulk from point to point like the 

 giant he was. Soon he came to the foot of 

 the butte where he could see its summit 

 plainly and there upon the crest of the em- 

 inence was the mightiest bison bull that he 

 had ever seen. He was standing with head 

 lowered pawing up dirt until a small cloud 

 of dust partly enveloped him, but one could 

 still discern his blood-red eyes that blazed 

 defiantly through the dust. He was clearly 

 outlined against the sky and the morning 

 sun, which was just rising, made a gorgeous 

 background for the mighty King of the 

 Plains, for this was the lordly ruler of all 

 the bison in the northwest country. 



By this I do not mean that his gov- 

 ernment was anything very definite. He 

 simply dominated all the smaller herds of 

 which the larger herd was composed. His 

 coat was much darker than his fellows, 

 being a dark rich chestnut. In some 



