My ears next caught a sound which turned out to be the bellowing of a herd of cattle, coming at a terrific speed down my path. There were several hundred of them, according to the count I made of them as they were passing me, and they were in very much of a hurry and frightfully excited, one old bull in the lead having his head down, uttering dreadful cries and snorting viciously.
They would quickly be upon me, and they were so thick and dense I could not squeeze to one side and let them pass without being trod upon.
My presence of mind saved me from an awful death; a few seconds longer of delay on my part and I should have been crushed by their horrid hoofs. In those few seconds I grasped a sapling, bent its top into the path, took a firm hold and let go the other hand, swinging clear of their heads and horns just in the nick of time.
And my new dilemma was as great as the one I had safely passed. The leaves were so thick and so were the little branches, it became a very serious matter to fall to the ground without carrying with me a leaf or two or a twig or so. I was satisfied I could not escape such a catastrophe, and was about to resign myself to my fate, when a most peculiar thing happened.
A mammoth spider was spinning his web among the branches above my head, and his web was like linen thread. A happy thought came into my mind, and I was about to put it into execution when I saw he had stretched a thread across the path and I had disarranged this when I had bent down the tree, and he was now about to repair the damage. The best of it all was his main line was quite within my reach, along which he was just then traveling.
He belonged to a distinct species, specimens of which I have not seen since, for he spun five threads at a time. His progress was not very rapid, for he braided the threads together as he went.
He reached the other side, and after having made fast the end of his braid or rope, he came just as slowly back, leaving another line trailing behind.
When he reached a point just above me and had securely fastened his line by wrapping it several times around a good limb, and glueing it, I began to tease him with a small branch that I twisted around for the purpose, and he became so enraged he lost his hold and fell to the ground.
I quickly snipped the line which he had spun in his descent, pulled myself up to his rope bridge, along which I went hand over hand until I reached the middle of the path, where I swayed up and down until I could let go and drop to the ground without injury, which I did, quite glad of my escape from certain death; for so read the rule, and I could have come down in no other way without bringing with me many leaves and some twigs.