out of their reach."

CHAPTER XXXI.

BESIEGED BY THE BULL.

"Well," continued Hans, after a pause, "I began to congratulate myself
on my fortunate escape; for I was convinced that but for the ant-hill I
would have been trampled and gored to death. The bull was one of the
largest and fiercest of his kind, and a very old one too, as I could
tell by the bases of his thick black horns nearly meeting over his
forehead, as well as by his dark colour. I had plenty of time to note
these things. I felt that I was now safe--that the wildebeest could not
get near me; and I sat perched upon the top of the central cone,
watching his movements with perfect coolness.

It is true he did everything to reach my position. A dozen times he
charged up the hill, and more than once effected a lodgment among the
tops of the lower turrets, but the main one was too steep for him. No
wonder! It had tried my own powers to scale it.

At times he came so close to me in his desperate efforts, that I could
have touched his horns with the muzzle of my gun; and I had prepared to
give him a blow whenever I could get a good chance. I never saw a
creature behave so fiercely. The fact was, that I had hit him with my
bullet,--the wound was there along his jaw, and bleeding freely. The
pain of it maddened him; but that was not the only cause of his fury, as
I afterwards discovered.

Well. After several unsuccessful attempts to scale the cone, he varied
his tactics, and commenced butting the ant-heap as though he would bring
it down. He repeatedly backed, and then charged forward upon it with
all his might; and, to say the truth, it looked for some time as though
he would succeed.

Several of the lesser cones were knocked over by his powerful blows; and
the hard tough clay yielded before his sharp horns, used by him as
inverted pick-axes. In several places I could see that he had laid open
the chambers of the insects, or rather the ways and galleries that are
placed in the outer crust of the hill.

With all this I felt no fear. I was under the belief that he would soon
exhaust his rage and go away; and then I could descend without danger.
But after watching him a good long spell, I was not a little astonished
to observe that, instead of cooling down, he seemed to grow more furious
than ever. I had taken out my handkerchief to wipe the perspiration off
my face. It was as hot as an oven where I sat. Not a breath of air was
stirring, and the ray