T VISITOR

That night about sundown, just as we finished supper, there came from
the near prairie the mighty, portentous rumbling roar of a bull--the
bellow that he utters when he is roused to fight, the savage roar that
means "I smell blood." It is one of those tremendous menacing sounds
that never fail to give one the creeps and make one feel, oh! so puny
and helpless.

We went quietly to the edge of the timber and there was the monster at
the place where that evil milk was spilt, tearing up the ground with
hoofs and horns, and uttering that dreadful war-bellow. The cowboys
mounted their ponies, and gave a good demonstration of the power of
brains in the ruling of brawn. They took that bull at a gallop a mile or
more away, they admonished him with some hard licks of a knotted-rope
and left him, then came back, and after a while we all turned in for the
night.

Just as we were forgetting all things, the sweet silence of the camp was
again disturbed by that deep, vibrating organ tone, the chesty roaring
of the enraged bull; and we sprang up to see the huge brute striding in
the moonlight, coming right into camp, lured as before by that sinister
blood trail.

The boys arose and again saddled the ready mounts. Again I heard the
thudding of heavy feet, the shouts of the riders, a few loud snorts,
followed by the silence; and when the boys came back in half an hour we
rolled up once more and speedily were asleep.

To pass the night in peace! not at all. Near midnight my dreams were
mixed with earthquakes and thunder, and slowly I waked to feel that
ponderous bellow running along the ground, and setting my legs a-quiver.

[Illustration]

"_Row-ow-ow-ow_" it came, and shook me into full wakefulness to realize
that that awful brute was back again. He could not resist the glorious,
alluring chance to come and get awfully mad over that "bluggy milk." Now
he was in camp, close at hand; the whole sky seemed blocked out and the
trees a-shiver as he came on.

"_Row-ow-ow-ow_" he rumbled, also snorted softly as he came, and before
I knew it he walked down the narrow space between our beds and the
wagon. Had I jumped up and yelled, he, whether mad or scared, might have
trampled one or other of us. That is the bull of it; a horse steps over.
So I waited in trembling silence till that horrid "_Row-ow-ow-ow_" went
by. Then I arose and yelled with all my power:

"Louie! Frank! Help! Here's the bull."

The boys were up before