<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br/> <small>SHAGGO IN A TRAP</small></h2>
<p class="cap">The mighty buffalo was no coward. There
were some things of which Shaggo was
afraid, and one of them was the hot,
bubbling, boiling, geyser in the cave. But
he was not afraid of animals like himself, not
even the big fierce grizzly bear. Shaggo felt
that with his large, heavy head and his horns,
which were sharp and strong, if they were not
very long, he was a match for almost any other
creature.</p>
<p>Of course Shaggo knew nothing of lions,
tigers or elephants. Those animals did not live
in his part of the world and he had never seen
a circus. But of all the animals he knew, he
was afraid of none.</p>
<p>So when Shaggo, the mighty buffalo, saw the
herd of antelopes coming at him, to drive him
away from the drinking pool, he lowered his big,
bushy head, pawed the ground with his hoofs,
stamped with one foot, and bellowed loudly:</p>
<p>“Come on, all of you! I’m not afraid! I’m
thirsty and I’m going to get a drink. I would<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_46"></SPAN>[46]</span>
have taken a drink in peace, and gone off by myself
if you had let me alone, but if you want to
fight I am ready!”</p>
<p>“Oh, you are, are you?” bleated the antelopes—several
of them talking in animal fashion
at once. “Well, we’ll show you! This is our
turn to be at the drinking pool. You’d better
run.”</p>
<p>But Shaggo did not run. He stood with his
feet braced in the dirt, and the rushing antelopes,
with their sharp horns, came nearer and
nearer.</p>
<p>Now one of them was so close to Shaggo that
it seemed as if the buffalo would be scratched
by the horns. But the big buffalo swung a little
to one side, though his sore shoulder hurt him,
and, with one sweep of his great head, he
knocked the first antelope head over heels, causing
him to roll in the dust.</p>
<p>“How do you like that?” bellowed Shaggo.</p>
<p>“Pooh! that’s only one. There are three
dozen of us!” cried the next antelope.</p>
<p>That animal, also, rushed at Shaggo, but once
again the big buffalo waited until the sharp-horned
creature came close enough. Then with
a swing of his head, taking care not to let the
antelope’s horns hurt him, Shaggo sent this fellow
rolling over and over away from the water
hole.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47"></SPAN>[47]</span></p>
<p>“Come on!” bellowed the buffalo. “I’m
ready for you!”</p>
<p>He knocked down a third antelope, sending
this one turning two somersaults head over heels.</p>
<p>“Ho! Ho!” laughed Shaggo. “This is like
the game Rumpo and Bumpo used to play! It’s
lots of fun! It’s better than tag! Come on!
Who’s going to be the next?”</p>
<p>But now the rush of antelopes stopped. They
were not used to being knocked about in this
way.</p>
<p>“Come on!” cried Shaggo, sort of laughing
to himself. “I thought you were going to drive
me away from this water hole!”</p>
<p>“And so I am!” shouted another antelope,
who had been at the rear of the herd. “You
can’t knock me down!”</p>
<p>With horns lowered he rushed at Shaggo, but
the big buffalo was now entering into the spirit
of the fight. This time he shook his head a little
harder and gave it a wider sweep as the antelope
came near him. He sent this animal flying
through the air so that he landed some distance
away in a clump of bushes.</p>
<p>“There! How do you like that?” cried
Shaggo.</p>
<p>“I don’t like it at all,” was the answer of this
antelope as he scrambled to his feet.</p>
<p>“Then let me alone!” cried Shaggo. “Come<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48"></SPAN>[48]</span>
on now, it’s my turn to have some fun!” With
that he rushed straight at the antelopes as they
had rushed at him. Some of the mother antelopes,
who had small calves with them, grew
alarmed.</p>
<p>“Oh, look out!” cried these mothers, as they
scampered away, calling to their children to
follow. “Our little ones will be hurt!”</p>
<p>“Look out for Shaggo! Look out for
Shaggo!” was the cry on all sides now. “He’ll
knock us all head over heels!”</p>
<p>“That’s what I will!” said the mighty buffalo.
“Here I come!”</p>
<p>He ran faster, shaking his great head, and the
sun glistened on his black horns, which, if they
were not as long as those of the antelopes, were
much thicker.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49"></SPAN>[49]</span>
did not hurt so much!” he added, as he felt a
twinge of pain.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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!”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50"></SPAN>[50]</span></p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m not afraid of either a bear or a
mountain lion,” thought Shaggo, as he took his
drink. “Still, with my sore shoulder, I’d just
as soon not have to fight them now. I wish my
shoulder would get better!”</p>
<p>It did not pain Shaggo so much as at first, but
it was stiff and ached when he walked. It
seemed to be swelling, too, as he could see when
he looked at the reflection of himself in the
water pool, which was like a looking glass.</p>
<p>Now began the wanderings of Shaggo. They
took him into many places, and he had many adventures,
about which I will tell you. To some
of the places Shaggo went himself. To others
he was taken by men, whether he liked it or not.
And it was when he had to do with men that
most of the buffalo’s adventures took place.</p>
<p>Shaggo wandered over the prairie and up into
the forests. Now and then he met animal
friends, but he did not meet other buffaloes, for
they were all on ranges in National Parks, as
he had been.</p>
<p>Once Shaggo met a grizzly bear, who growled<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51"></SPAN>[51]</span>
out a welcome, as he clawed at a rotten stump to
get something to eat.</p>
<p>“Where are the rest of you?” asked the bear.</p>
<p>“Whom do you mean?” asked Shaggo.</p>
<p>“The other buffaloes,” went on the bear.
“Where are the others of the herd? You buffaloes
always travel in crowds.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I am off by myself looking for adventures,”
was Shaggo’s answer.</p>
<p>“Well, I wish you luck!” growled the bear,
as he shuffled away.</p>
<p>On and on traveled Shaggo. Now and then
he stopped to crop the rich grass, or to drink at
some small water hole. He did not again come
to one as large as that at which he had fought
the antelopes.</p>
<p>And once Shaggo accidentally stepped into
the hole house of a prairie dog. It was an old
hole, and no one lived in it, but Shaggo tripped
and fell, hurting his sore shoulder very much.</p>
<p>“Oh dear!” groaned the buffalo, and he felt
so bad that he stretched out on the grass and did
not get up again for some time. But at last the
pain eased somewhat, and then the mighty buffalo
wandered on, looking for a place to sleep.</p>
<p>The next morning, on a distant hill, Shaggo
saw some small figures, like black dots moving
about.</p>
<p>“I wonder if they can be buffaloes?” thought<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52"></SPAN>[52]</span>
Shaggo. He watched them carefully, and then
he knew the black dots were men moving about,
some on horses. Shaggo was more or less acquainted
with men. He had seen them in the
National Park, and once he had been very close
to several who had come to mend the broken
wire. The men had not tried to hurt the buffaloes,
so Shaggo and his companions were not
afraid of them.</p>
<p>“But maybe they are trying to get me inside
the fence again,” thought Shaggo. “I am not
ready to go back to the preserve yet. I’m going
to run away farther.”</p>
<p>So he trotted down into a valley, where the
men could not see him, and traveled on. But
the next day Shaggo saw the men again, and
there seemed to be more of them.</p>
<p>For a week or more Shaggo wandered on, now
and then seeing the men again. Sometimes they
were near, and again far off. Then, one day,
something happened which was the beginning of
many strange adventures for the buffalo.</p>
<p>He had eaten his fill of sweet, green grass
when he felt a longing for some salt. Animals
often have this desire. On the range, from
which he had run away, Shaggo knew of several
places where there were “salt licks.” There
the ground was white with salt, and the animals
could lick it up with their tongues.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_53"></SPAN>[53]</span></p>
<p>“I wish I could find such a place now,”
thought Shaggo. “I’d like to have some salt!”</p>
<p>To Shaggo, just then, salt would have been
as good as a lollypop would taste to you. So
the buffalo hunted about on the prairie, and at
last, to his joy, he found a few grains of salt.</p>
<p>“It isn’t very much, but it’s better than nothing,”
he said to himself as he licked it up. Then,
as he walked on, he found that the salt seemed
to extend in a long, thin line toward a little
valley.</p>
<p>“Oh, maybe there’s a lot of salt there!”
thought Shaggo. “I’ll follow this thin line
along, and get all I want!”</p>
<p>He licked up the salt as he slowly followed its
line, never raising his head to look about him.
If he had, Shaggo would have seen, hidden behind
the bushes, several men.</p>
<p>“We’ve got him now!” whispered one of the
men.</p>
<p>“Almost,” said another in a low voice. “I
thought the salt would get him!”</p>
<p>Shaggo kept on licking up the salt, moving
forward until he saw, just ahead of him, a pile
of the white crystals. This salt was under what
seemed to be a shed, but as the buffalo had often
gone into a shed on the range he was not afraid
of this one.</p>
<p>“At last I have found just what I want—a big<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54"></SPAN>[54]</span>
salt lick,” thought Shaggo to himself. “I surely
am in luck to-day!”</p>
<p>He made a rush under the shed, where he
could get a quantity of the salt at once instead
of only a few grains at a time. But no sooner
had he passed into the shed and begun to lick
up the salt greedily, than something happened.</p>
<p>There was a bang and a crash behind him!
Shaggo raised his head and turned quickly. The
shed had been open on one side—the place
where the buffalo had entered. But now this
side was closed. And, to his surprise, Shaggo
found himself shut up in a small house made of
heavy logs.</p>
<p>“We’ve got him!” cried the voices of men
outside. “We have him now!”</p>
<p>Shaggo made a rush against the log door that
had fallen shut behind him. But with all his
strength he was not able to knock it open. He
was hurled back, his shoulder hurting him
dreadfully. And then, as more men ran up,
shouting, Shaggo knew what had happened.</p>
<p>“I’m caught in a trap!” bellowed the mighty
buffalo.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55"></SPAN>[55]</span></p>
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