“That’s right,” chimed in another. “If he’d gotten loose there would be a lot of trouble.”
By this time Shaggo was getting used to the sight and smell of men, though of course he did not know what they were saying. He no longer tried to break out of his cage when they came near him. But had he known that he was in a railroad wreck the buffalo might have tried to escape. For, as was found out afterward, one part of the cage was broken, and, had Shaggo tried, he could have slipped out. But he did not know, and so he stayed inside the bars until, after a while, another train was made up to take the place of the wrecked one, and Shaggo was put on board that. Then, once again, off he started, just where to he did not know.
All he knew was that he did not at all like it in the dark, even though, now and then, men came in to give him hay and water.
Sometimes these men talked to Shaggo, and when daylight came, and the door of his car was left open, letting in light and air, one of the men stayed some little time, looking at the buffalo.
“My, but you’re a big fellow! The circus will be glad to get you,” he said.
Shaggo was so lonesome, by this time, that he moved over toward the side of the cage where the man stood, and put out his tongue. Perhaps Shaggo hoped to get a bit of salt. But the man had none. However, the man reached his hand in through the bars of the cage and patted the shaggy animal on the back. By accident he touched the animal’s sore shoulder.
Shaggo jumped back and let out a loud bellow, a sound such as a bull makes in a farmer’s pasture.
At last, after several days’ travel, during which he was never let out of the car, following the railroad wreck, Shaggo noticed that the train was standing still. Then his car was sent back and forth, in little jerks at a time, until finally it gave a big bump, shaking Shaggo up rather badly, and then it was still.
“Well, I wonder what’s going to happen now,” thought the great buffalo. “I hope they let me out of this cage, or trap, or whatever they call it. I want to run around and get some green grass and some salt, and I want to drink at the water pool. I wonder if I can run any more? My shoulder seems very much larger, and it is stiff. It doesn’t hurt me as much as when I first fell on it, after my big jump, but I wonder if I can run with it this way?”
He tried to get a look at his shoulder, but it was still dark in his car. Suddenly, however, the door was opened. The flood of sunlight almost blinded Shaggo for a moment, and then he saw some men come in. They had ropes and boards.