"Never mind!" cried the young millionaire. "I'll go down anyhow. No use starting the motor again. I'll volplane and land where I can." And, as it happened, he came down in New York, in the midst of the Bronx Park buffalo range. It was a perfect landing, the Abaris reaching the ground with scarcely a jar. But the big, shaggy buffaloes snorted in terror, and ran in all directions. That is, all but one big bull, and he, with a bellow of rage, charged straight for the airship! CHAPTER XXI OFF FOR THE PACIFIC "Look out for him!" "Go up in the air again!" "Has anybody got a gun?" "Start the motor!" These, and other excited cries, came from those in Dick Hamilton's airship as they saw the charging buffalo. The animal was the largest in the captive herd, probably the leader. It seemed a strange thing for a modern airship to be threatened with an attack by a buffalo in these days, but such was the case. "He may damage us!" cried Dick. "We've got to do something!" But there seemed nothing to do. Before they could get out of the cabin of the airship, which now rested on the ground within the buffalo range, the frightened and infuriated animal might rush at the craft. And, though he would probably come off second best in the odd battle, he might damage some of the frail planes or rudders. "Come on!" cried Paul. "Let's all rush out at him at once, and yell as hard as we can. That may scare him off." But there was no need of this. Before the buffalo had time to reach the airship a mounted police officer rode rapidly up to the fence of the enclosure, and, taking in the situation, novel as it was, at a glance, he fired several shots from his revolver at the rushing animal. None of the bullets was intended to hit the buffalo, and none did. But some came so close, and the noise of the shots was so loud, that the beast stopped suddenly, and then, after a pause, in which he snorted, and pawed the ground, he retreated, to stand in front of the herd of cows and other bulls, probably thinking he constituted himself their protector against the strange and terrible foe. "Well, that's over!" exclaimed Dick, with a sigh of relief. "Say, isn't this the limit? If we bad an airship out on the plains fifty years ago it wouldn't have been any surprise to be charged by a buffalo. But here in New York--well, it is just about the extreme edge, to my way of thinking!" "All's well that ends well," quoted Innis. "Now let's get breakfast." But it seemed that something else was to come first. "Get your craft out of there," ordered the police officer, who had fired the shots. "I guess we'd better," said Dick to his chums. "That buffalo might change his mind, and come at us again." "How are we going to get out?" asked Mr. Vardon, as he noticed the heavy fence around the buffalo enclosure. And there was hardly room inside it to get the necessary start to raise the big airship.