the buffalo was a good un. Come, now, an’ I’ll show ye how to cut it up an’ carry off the tit-bits.”
“Ah, mon dear ole bull!” exclaimed Henri, gazing after the animal which he had wounded, and which was now limping slowly away. “You is not worth goin’ after. Farewell—adieu.”
“He’ll be tough enough, I warrant,” said Joe; “an’ we’ve more meat here nor we can lift.”
“But wouldn’t it be as well to put the poor brute out o’ pain?” suggested Dick.
“Oh, he’ll die soon enough,” replied Joe, tucking up his sleeves and drawing his long hunting-knife.
Dick, however, was not satisfied with this way of looking at it. Saying that he would be back in a few minutes, he reloaded his rifle, and calling Crusoe to his side, walked quickly after the wounded bull, which was now hid from view in a hollow of the plain.
In a few minutes he came in sight of it, and ran forward with his rifle in readiness.
“Down, Crusoe,” he whispered; “wait for me here.”
Crusoe crouched in the grass instantly, and Dick advanced. As he came on, the bull observed him, and turned round, bellowing with rage and pain, to receive him. The aspect of the brute on a near view was so terrible that Dick involuntarily stopped too, and gazed with a mingled feeling of wonder and awe, while it bristled with passion, and blood-streaked foam dropped from its open jaws, and its eyes glared furiously. Seeing that Dick did not advance, the bull charged him with a terrific roar; but the youth had firm nerves, and although the rush of such a savage creature at full speed was calculated to try the courage of any man, especially one who had never seen a buffalo bull before, Dick did not lose presence of mind. He remembered the many stories he had listened to of this very thing that was now happening; so, crushing down his excitement as well as he could, he cocked his rifle and awaited the charge. He knew that it was of no use to fire at the head of the advancing foe, as the thickness of the skull, together with the matted hair on the forehead, rendered it impervious to a bullet.
When the bull was within a yard of him he leaped lightly to one side, and it passed. Just as it did so, Dick aimed at its heart and fired, but his knowledge of the creature’s anatomy was not correct. The ball entered
