A SURPRISING APPEARANCE


Helen was sobbing and crying as she ran. Tom kept a few feet behind
the girls, although what he could have done to defend them, had the
big bull overtaken him, it would be hard to say. And for several
moments it looked very much as though Hiram Bassett's herd-leader was
going to reach his prey.

The thunder of his hoofs was in their ears. They did not speak again
as they came to the steep bank down to the open creek. There, just
before them, was an old hollow stump, perhaps ten feet high, with the
opening on the creek side. All three of them knew it well.

As Helen went over the bank and disappeared on one side of the
stump, Tom darted around the other side. Ruth, with the red cap in
her hand, stumbled over a root and fell to her knees. She was right
beside the hollow stump, and Helen's cap caught in a twig and was
snatched from her hand.

As Ruth scrambled aside and then fairly rolled over the edge of the
bank out of sight, the cap was left dangling right in front of the
stump. The bull charged it. That flashing bit of color was what had
attracted the brute from the start.

As the three friends dived over the bank--and their haste and
heedlessness carried them pell-mell to the bottom--there sounded a
yell behind them that certainly was not emitted by the bull. Goodness
knows, he roared loudly enough! But this was no voice of a bull that