them over my
head, when I set about cutting the dead bull. They were lying by the
carcass.

This discovery was a new source of chagrin; but for my negligence, I
could now have mastered my antagonist.

To reach the ammunition would be impossible; I should be overtaken
before I had got half-way to it.

I was not allowed much time to indulge in my regrets; the bull had again
turned the ditch, and was once more upon the same side with me, and I
was compelled to take another leap.

I really do not remember how often I sprang backwards and forwards
across that chasm; I should think a dozen times at least, and I became
wearied with the exercise. The leap was just as much as I could do at
my best; and as I was growing weaker at each fresh spring, I became
satisfied that I should soon leap short, and crush myself against the
steep rocky sides of the chasm.

Should I fall to the bottom, my pursuer could easily reach me by
entering at either end, and I began to dread such a finale. The
vengeful brute showed no symptoms of retiring; on the contrary, the
numerous disappointments seemed only to render him more determined in
his resentment.

An idea now suggested itself to my mind, I had looked all round to see
if there might not be something that offered a better security. There
were trees, but they were too distant: the only one near was that to
which my horse had been tied. It was a small one, and, like all of its
species (it was a cotton-wood), there were no branches near the root.

I knew that I could clamber up it by embracing the trunk, which was not
over ten inches in diameter. Could I only succeed in reaching it, it
would at least shelter me better than the ditch, of which I was getting
heartily tired.

But the question was, could I reach it before the bull?

It was about three hundred yards off. By proper manoeuvring, I should
have a start of fifty. Even, with that, it would be a "close shave;"
and it proved so.

I arrived at the tree, however, and sprang up it like a mountebank; but
the hot breath of the buffalo steamed after me as I ascended, and the
concussion of his heavy skull against the trunk almost shook me back
upon his horns.

After a severe effort of climbing, I succeeded in lodging myself among
the branches.

I was now safe from all immediate danger, but how was the affair to end?

I knew from the experience of others, that my enemy might stay for hours
by the tree--perhaps for days!