“Moccasin Telegraph,” she murmured. “If Johnny had told me his secret perhaps I could now flash a message to our camp.”
In the meantime the buffalo, having ceased roaring and pawing, had settled down to what promised to be a long wait. With head hanging low, he appeared to fall fast asleep.
“Shamming,” she whispered.
But was he? Everyone knows that four-footed creatures often sleep standing up.
Joyce was not a person of great patience. She was all for action.
“I won’t freeze!” she declared stoutly. “I’ll jump down and try to out-dodge him. I’ll take to the trees.”
Having resolved on this, she studied possible landing spots. In the end she chose, one might think, the most perilous of all.
“I’ll climb up a little higher, and then I’ll drop square on his back. He’ll be so startled he’ll run away.”
No sooner resolved than done. From a perch ten feet above, she suddenly descended upon the buffalo’s back.
The result exceeded her expectations. The great beast lurched forward, it seemed, the very second she landed. She was pitched backward and landed full length in the snow.