248 The King of the Thundering Herd 



made no move to flee from him. He surely 

 must be mortally wounded. That was the 

 explanation of the strange proceeding. 



But even this theory was upset presently, 

 as the trooper was going forward again step 

 by step. Surely he knew that a wounded 

 bison was more to be feared than almost 

 any other form of big game. Well, he was 

 a fool. That was all there was about it. 



But he did not come to harm, as far as 

 the officer could determine, at that distance, 

 although he went up to within a yard of 

 the fugitive and held out his hand. 



The next move in this strange proceed- 

 ing fairly took away the breath of the 

 watcher in the valley below, for the old bull 

 actually took two steps toward the young 

 man, and holding out his great shaggy head, 

 with its long black beard, put his huge 

 muzzle in the hand of the trooper. 



For five minutes they stood thus, the man 

 rubbing the bull's nose and the bull licking 



