It was agreed that the hour for tea had arrived, if not by the clock at least by taste and inclination, and at the next shady lane they turned in. It led through a charming little village. Smoke curled lazily from the chimneys of cottages that were built with low hanging eaves and tiny little windows. At the foot of the one street was a bridge spanning a small stream. Being of an exploring mind, the mistress of the “Comet” guided him across the bridge and followed the windings of the wilful little road until it dwindled into a path and was absorbed by a meadow. Lifting the bars that separated the meadow from the path, they made themselves at home on the greensward.
“Here’s the very place,” exclaimed Mary, her heart leaping with pleasure over the romance of this retired spot.
“Even the roadsides in England are like parks,” observed Elinor presently, as she spread the contents of the tea basket on the grass and put the kettle over the lamp to boil.
Having departed from the high road, they seemed to be alone in a little world of green. They were on some one’s grounds, perhaps, but where was the harm? The air was scented with the fragrance of apple blossoms and wild flowers; their spoons made a musical tinkle against the delicate china of the teacups.
Into the midst of this quiet pastoral scene came the thump of hoofs and there emerged on the brow of the hill an immense bull. To their excited and frightened fancies, he seemed really gigantic as he stood looking at them suspiciously. They sat frozen to the spot, too overcome to make the effort to stand on their feet.
“Oh, my dear! Oh, my dear! What are we to do?” whispered Miss Campbell. “Look at the creature. If we move, he’ll be at us. Oh, oh!” she groaned.
Even Billie’s ingenious mind did not respond to the situation; especially since she saw three men with spiked poles, who had run up behind the great quivering beast, now pause irresolutely, seeing the party of tea drinkers.
Now, if they had been able to nerve themselves to sit perfectly still without so much as moving a muscle, it is highly probable the bull would have sniffed at them contemptuously and passed them by. But, in the first place, not one of the five motorists was aware of this peculiarity of the bovine family, and, in the second place, seeing the beast toss his head with a low, angry bellow, it was impossible for human flesh to remain inert.
With wild cries, they got to their feet somehow, but there was no time to scatter as the bull charged into their midst and toppled them over like so many ten pins. It was a moment of such paralyzing terror, that what happened next was a sort of blur on their minds.
Billie remembered being tossed in the air and at the same moment hearing the crack of a pistol three times in quick succession. A most blissful period of unconsciousness followed this incident. Perhaps, when the bull had tossed her, she had not come down but was still floating above the heads of her friends, whose voices she could dimly hear a great way off.