Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/19

Rh black and white steer—wide horned, ferocious of aspect—quite evidently "on the rampage." The noise of the passing car had brought him out of concealment. He plunged into the trail not ten yards behind the slowing car.

"Goodness me!" shouted the big boy who sat beside Bill Hicks and his niece. "What kind of a beast is that? It's almost as big as an elephant!"

"Oh!" cried the girl called "The Fox." "That surely isn't the kind of cattle you have here, is it? He looks more like a buffalo. See! he's coming after us!"

The black and white steer did look as savage as any old buffalo bull and, emitting a bellow, shook his head at the automobile and began to cast the dust up along his flanks with his sharp hoofs. He was indeed of a terrifying appearance.

"It's Old Trouble-Maker!" cried Jane Ann Hicks.

"He looks just as though his name fitted him," said Tom Cameron, who had sprung up to look back at the steer.

At that moment the steer lowered his head and charged for the auto. The girls shrieked, and Tom cried:

"Go ahead, Nell! let's leave that beast behind."

Before his sister could put on speed again,