"Shoot to kill?" asked Ned, as he drew back the firing lever of his
electric rifle.

"No, only a stunning charge. Those horses are valuable, and there's
no use killing them. All we want to do is to turn them aside."

"That's right," agreed Mr. Damon, forgetting in the excitement of
the moment to bless himself or anything. "We'll only stun them."

The rifles were quickly adjusted to send out a comparatively weak
charge of electricity, and then they were trained on the dense mass
of horses, while the three marksmen began working the firing levers.

At first, though horse after horse fell to the ground, stunned,
there was no appreciable effect on the thousands in the drove. The
poor mules were hidden from sight, though by reason of divisions in
the living stream of animals it could still be told where they were
tethered, and where the horses separated to go past them.
Fortunately the ropes and pegs held.

"Fire faster!" cried Tom. "Shoot across the front of them, and try
to turn them to one side."

From the rocks, behind which the natives and our friends crouched,
there came a steady stream of electric fire. Horse after horse went
down, stunned but not badly hurt, and in a few hours the beasts
would feel no ill effects. The firing was redoubled, and then there
came a break in the steady stream of horseflesh.