"Quick, Tom!" yelled Ned, and at that instant the Black Hawk shot
upward, just as the foremost of the buffaloes passed underneath,
vainly endeavoring to gore the craft with their sweeping horns. The
air-travelers had risen just in time.

"Now it's our turn!" shouted Ned, as he began firing from above into
the herd of infuriated animals below him. Tom, after seeing that the
motor was working well, sent the airship circling about, while
standing in the steering tower, he guided his craft here and there,
meanwhile pouring a fusillade of his wireless bullets into the
buffaloes. Many of them dropped in their tracks, but the big herd
continued to rush here and there, crashing into the frail native
huts, tearing them down, and, whenever a black man appeared, chasing
after him infuriatedly.

"Keep at it!" cried Mr. Durban, as he poured more lead into the
buffaloes. "If we don't kill enough of them, and drive the others
away, there won't be anything left of this village."




CHAPTER XVIII

NEWS OF THE RED PYGMIES


Seldom had it been the lot of Tom and his companions to take part in
such a novel hunting scene as that in which they were now