“Come on! Let’s run!” cried one antelope; and this seemed to be the best thing for them. Those who had been knocked down had got up, and, in another instant, the whole herd was running away over the prairie faster than they had run up to the water hole.
“Hum! Well, that wasn’t so bad! One buffalo making a whole herd of antelopes run away!” laughed Shaggo in his own fashion, as he stopped, raised his head and looked after the running creatures. “I have had one good adventure, anyhow! Oh, but I wish my shoulder did not hurt so much!” he added, as he felt a twinge of pain.
For now, when the excitement of fighting the antelopes was over, the buffalo felt the pain more than ever. He limped back to the water hole, after making sure that the antelopes had gone far enough away as not to bother him, and took a long drink.
“I guess I’ll eat something and then go to sleep,” decided Shaggo, when he had taken all the water he needed. “Then I can roam wherever I please. I am no longer fenced in. There is no one to order me about—not even Wuffo!”
He began to feel very important, but another twinge of pain in his shoulder made him remember that his adventures were not all happy ones.
Shaggo was so tired because of his adventures, and from the pain in his shoulder, that he slept all night. It was bright morning when he awakened, and the first thing he wanted was a drink.
“I’ll go to the water hole and then I’ll eat my breakfast,” he said to himself. “After that I’ll roam where I please and see what adventures I may meet with.”
When Shaggo reached the water hole he saw, in the soft mud at the bank, the marks of many feet. Among them were those of the antelopes.
“They came back and got their drink after I went away,” laughed Shaggo to himself. He also saw the tracks of a bear and those of a mountain lion. The mountain lion is not like the lion you may have seen in a circus—it is more like a wild cat or a panther.