“No, of course not. They are perfectly harmless. They don’t know what to make of us, that’s all, and their curiosity urges them up to take a good look.”
“Nevertheless, I noticed that he was quickening his pace. As for myself, I scanned the distance to the boundary fence with anxious eyes. The cattle, which at first had maintained a respectful distance, now began to crowd closer.
“Please, Dan,” I urged, “take off that sweater and hide it till we get out of this pasture. I don’t like the sight of so many cows a little bit.”
“Rats, Ethel, don’t be a coward. Who’s afraid of a few cows?”
He turned to wave his hat at the advancing animals, stepped into a prairie dog burrow and came heavily to the ground. As he regained his feet, his features twisted in pain and he caught at the handle bars.
“Gee whiz,” he grunted, “I gave my ankle a beastly wrench. It hurts like the devil.”
Visions of dislocations, sprains, of incapacitation in this God-forsaken spot, flashed before my brain as I sank to my knees to learn the extent of the injury, the cattle for a moment forgotten. I unlaced the shoe, and after a careful examination was delighted to find that it was nothing worse than a sprain which would doubtless be well in a few days.
“I’ll take the wheel and you sit down while I unpack the emergency kit and get out the bandages,” I remarked, rising to my feet. “I’ll just put on a——” The words froze on my lips. We stood in a ring of cattle less than two hundred feet in diameter. They stood shoulder to shoulder, heads down, noses to the ground, blowing, snorting, pawing, while here and there some young bull would advance a step with tossing head, then pause while the herd moved in to join him. Dan broke in on my immobility.
“We can’t stop to bother with my ankle now,” he muttered. “We must make tracks out of here as fast as the Lord’ll let us.”
He hobbled on a few steps, leaning on the tandem. At once the animals in the rear moved forward, while those in front set up a peculiar moaning bellow, which seemed to enrage the whole herd. The air vibrated with their bawling. To my affrighted eyes the whole plain seemed a solid mass of reddish backs and tossing heads. Fragments of what I had read and heard of western cattle came to my mind. They would attack a man on foot—a person on horseback was safe——.