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228 on both sides, an' afore I knowed it, I wuz right in the middle o' 'em."

"What did you do?" asked Allen, as Watson paused reflectively.

"At fust I didn't know what ter do persackly. I shot one of 'em, but bless ye, thet wuzn't nuthin, and I calkerlated as how I'd have ter ride fer it. Then of a sudden my hoss got scared and shot me over his head into a big thorn bush and made off like a streak o' greased lightnin', leaving me alone."

"With the buffalo all around you?"

"Jes so, more 'n twenty o' 'em, an' more 'n a hundred others comin' up fast as they could leg it. I kin tell ye I wuz in a fix an' no error."

"It must have hurt you to land in the thorn bush?"

"Hurt? Wall say, it wuz like bein' dumped into a pit full o' daggers, that wuz! Hain't fergot the awful stickin' pain yit an' never will! But bein' chucked into thet thorn bush saved my life."

"Didn't the buffalo touch the bush?"

"Nary a one. They would come up close, on a dead run, an' then shy like a skittish hoss afore a bit o' white paper. Time an' ag'in I thought