Their cries and evident fright attracted the notice of the farmer before
he really knew what was happening. Then he saw the bull and gave tongue
to his own immediate excitement:

"Look at that critter! He's broke out of the barnyard--drat him! Don't
let him see you, gals, for he's as vicious as sin!"

He started forward with a stick in his hand to attack the enraged bull.
But the animal paid no attention to him. It had set its eyes upon
something which excited its rage--Ruth Fielding's red sweater!

"Oh, Ruth! Ruth!" shrieked Helen, suddenly seeing her chum cornered on
the other side of the car.

Ruth tried to open the car door again. But it stuck. Nor was there time
for the girl of the Red Mill to vault the door and so escape the charge
of the maddened bull. The brute was upon her.




CHAPTER II

A PERFECT SHOT


One may endure dangers of divers kinds (and Ruth Fielding had done so by
land and sea) and be struck down unhappily by an apparently ordinary
peril. The threat of that black bull's charge was as poignant as
anything that had heretofore happened to the girl of the Red Mill.