A stone struck him on the forehead. Another and another began to whiz about him.
He dodged them as best he could and began running for the road. But he had reckoned without Blue Lightning. The animal had been hit by a rock and had faced straight about. With lowered head it began rushing at the Hawaiians. Behind it trailed the rope.
“Biff! Bang! Hurray!” yelled Herc as he saw the Manhattan’s mascot rushing into the fray.
Down went one of the men in a heap as the goat collided with him. The rope tangled into many loops, and convolutions caught the ankles of two more and down they went with a yell.
“Wow! Charge ’em! Never say die! Good for you!” roared Herc enthusiastically.
Blue Lightning needed no urging. Right and left he sped with lowered horns, spreading disaster whenever he encountered a solid body. The women had fled screaming, and only the men were in the danger zone. At last the men all took to their heels, too, and Herc, running forward, grabbed the goat’s rope and began hauling the creature up the slope.
“Whee! Whoop!” he yelled, as he clambered back to the road. “Didn’t that beat any circus you ever saw? Wasn’t it fun?”
“I’m afraid it may have serious consequences,” commented Ned, who, however, couldn’t keep from laughing. “The guide tells me that he heard one of the men shouting in Hawaiian that they would have us arrested.”
“In that case, we’d better stay up by the volcano,” said the irrepressible Herc. “Under such circumstances I’d rather face it than the old man.”