d
looked back surprised. I thought they were going to wait, but they
soon galloped on. I saw I must go to one side if I wished to get
within range, and turned to the right. In a few minutes I came up
abreast of them and within easy range, but I soon found that though I
could guide my horse I could not stop him, pull as hard as I might. I
could not even make him stop and buck again. He was going straight
toward the north pole, and I thought it would not take him long to get
there. One way to stop him came to me. It was a rash plan, but I saw
no other.

Ahead and a little more to the right was a mighty bank of snow in the
lee of a little knoll. It sloped up gradually and did not look
dangerous. I turned him full into it. At the third jump he was down to
his chin, and I had gone on over his head. When at last I struck I
went down a good ways beyond my chin; in fact my chin went down first,
and if any part of me was in sight it must have been my heels. All I
knew was that I was hanging to my gun as if it were as necessary as my
head.

Why the breath of life was not knocked out of me I don't know, but it
wasn't, and I kicked and thrashed about till I got my head and
shoulders to the surface, with a peck of snow down the back of my
neck. I looked for the buffaloes, and there they stood in blank
astonishment, wondering, I guess, if I always got off of a horse that
way. I ran my sleeve along the barrel of my rifle, rested it over a
lump of frozen snow and fired at the nearest one, which was standing
quartering to me. I saw the ball plow up the snow beyond and to the
left. They all started on. As mine turned his side square to me I
fired again. He went down with a mighty flounder. The others rushed
away. I waded nearer and finished him with one more shot.

Dick was still aground in the snow, snorting like a steam-engine, but
by the time I had tramped the drift down and got him out he was over
his nonsense and carried me back to the barn quite decently. I was all
for skinning and dressing my buffalo. To Taggart's I went and got some
good sharp knives, and, taking Kaiser and the sled, started back. I
don't think I ever worked so hard in my life as I did at that job. It
was not very cold, which was one good thing. Every minute I expected
the wolves, and I did not have long to wait either. Before three
o'clock they came howling along the trail the buffaloes had made, and
I had to stop and fire at them every few minutes to keep t