And then chaos broke loose.
Toward where I stood, from every angle to my front, the whole herd stampeded.

No human being could have guessed their number.

The forest awoke with a battle-din of falling trees and crashing undergrowth, split apart by the trumpeting of angry bulls and the screams of cows summoning their young ones.

The earth shook under the weight of their tremendous rout.

I heard Fred's rifle ring out three times far to my left--then Will's a rifle nearer to me; and at that the herd swung toward its own left, and the whole lot of them came full-pelt, blind, screaming, frantic, straight for me.
There was no turning them now.