Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS.
93
■ and it required the horses to get up their best paces
to overtake them.
After a furious gallop, Pemberton’s horse ran
close up alongside of a fine-looking buffalo cow
—so close that he could almost touch the side
of the animal with the point of his gun. Drop¬
ping the rein, he pointed the gun without putting
it to his shoulder, and fired. The ball passed
through the animal’s heart, and it dropt like a
stone. At the same moment Pemberton flung his
cap on the ground beside it, so that he might
afterwards claim it as his own.
The well-trained horse did not shy at the shot,
neither did it check its pace for a moment, but
ran straight on and soon placed its master along¬
side of another buffalo cow. In the meantime,
Pemberton loaded like lightning. He let the
reins hang loose, knowing that the horse under¬
stood his work, and, seizing the powder-horn at
his side with his right hand, drew the wooden
stopper with his teeth, and poured a charge of
powder into his left—guessing the quantity, of
course. Pouring this into the gun, he put the
muzzle to his mouth, and spat the ball into it,
struck the butt on the pommell of the saddle to
send it down, as well as to drive the powder into
the pan, and taking his chance of the gun prim¬
ing itself, he aimed as before, and pulled the trig¬
ger. The explosion followed, and a second buffalo