"Come forth, old trapper," he shouted, "with your prairie inventions!
or we shall be all smothered under a mountain of buffaloe humps!"

The old man, who had stood all this while leaning on his rifle, and
regarding the movements of the herd with a steady eye, now deemed it
time to strike his blow. Levelling his piece at the foremost bull,
with an agility that would have done credit to his youth, he fired.
The animal received the bullet on the matted hair between his horns,
and fell to his knees: but shaking his head he instantly arose, the
very shock seeming to increase his exertions. There was now no longer
time to hesitate. Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth
his arms, and advanced from the cover with naked hands, directly
towards the rushing column of the beasts.

The figure of a man, when sustained by the firmness and steadiness
that intellect can only impart, rarely fails of commanding respect
from all the inferior animals of the creation. The leading bulls
recoiled, and for a single instant there was a sudden stop to their
speed, a dense mass of bodies rolling up in front, until hundreds were
seen floundering and tumbling on the plain. Then came another of those
hollow bellowings from the rear, and set the herd again in motion. The
head of the column, however, divided. The immovable form of the
trapper, cutting it, as it were, into two gliding streams of life.
Middleton and Paul instantly profited by his example, and extended the
feeble barrier by a similar exhibition of their own persons.

For a few moments, the new impulse given to the animals in front,
served to protect the thicket. But, as the body of the herd pressed
more and more upon the open line of its defenders, and the dust