And who is in charge of this Safari, anyway?  Apparently it’s Mark, determined to find out “what caused the buffalo to run through” their camp…  Maybe it’s a “Who” and not a What…”

And there’s Dirty, “betting” again…  sheesh…

As Taurus recovers from him Traumatic Brain Injury, he shoulders a weapon while Mark and Chris “Dirty” Dyer play the “I know more about Cape Buffalo that you do” game… I learned the other day that it is entirely possible for two people together to know less than one person who doesn’t know what he is talking about…  While Mark continues to play the “not enraged” card, I have to wonder what Dirty’s life has included that would make him so wise in the ways of African Fauna.  But then he DOES “know people” there- people who are going to help him get out of debt by breaking international laws and norms by trafficking in White Rhino horn destined for the Asian market…

So sad to watch Mark have to puff his chest out, clearly showing his natural instinct to appear bigger than he is when threatened by another male human being- one who is threatening his domain as one who holds dominion over the Natural world…

It’s not like he was away, Mark…  Really.  Who does the writing here?? And with another lame attempt at dialogue involving multiple gambling euphemisms, two in one sentence, I really wish he had been beaten into the dust… but not a scratch on him.  Left for dead, Chris looks like he hasn’t even been fazed…

And Mark is still on this “something scared the Buffalo” kick.  Got news for you, Nature Boy, these animals live scared.  It’s what keeps them alive…   but OK, we will go with this idea that some external force, some agent of doom set the herd a-runnin’.   Otherwise, where on earth can this story go?  And is that it as far as Dirty’s plan to off Mark?  I suppose it’s just another in a long line of big ideas that never seem to come to fruition…

And has feelings.  For Buffalo, anyway…  not for Taurus or Dirty or anyone else that may be lying out there in a heap or trapped on top of a dented Range Rover…  And with Lori Tompkins safe in the crook of Mark’s chin, he begins to postulate what caused to herd to scramble…  and makes the distinction between a herd that is pissed off and on herd that is frightened.  Which I think is BS…  As large as these animals are, they know one thing and behave as such- they are prey.  Prey for the apex predators that roam the Savana, and their main response is to run, and only in protecting their young will they confront the predator.  So “Enraged?”  I don’t this that’s an option, Mark…

So enough with the charging Buffalo.  Let’s get back to why Mark is there in the first place… The missing (dead?) naturalist that he went there to visit in the first place.  Their paths have to cross in some form…

…the rest of you are on your own.  Sorry, but that’s just how it works in the Trail-verse…the rest of you are on your own.  Sorry, but that’s just how it works in the Trail-verse…  Meanwhile, Taurus is demonstrating the skills that placed him on the Kenyan Olympic track and field team…  Decathlon if I recall correctly.  But oh my!  What action!

I guess we will have to wait until Monday to learn of Dirty’s fate…  did death come knocking?  Seems a little grim…  I’d go with a good bruising and rank humiliation.  That would keep the fires of indignation burning brightly in the Gambler’s heart… and the story line interesting…

Like they couldn’t hear the stampede with their own less-that-Trailian senses?  And besides, it looks like they are in the middle of a dance- sort of the John Travolta/ Uma Thurman kind from  Pulp Fiction…  And we’ve probably never seen Mark running from a full-behind perspective…  oh, the vistas we have uncovered since Allen took the pen…

Take cover?  Well I guess there IS that giant tree trunk they could hide behind…

What happened to “Dirty?”  Been knocked about by the buffalo… I think we have established, by now, the author’s ability to draw the Cape Buffalo in all its various angles…  Well done, James Allen, but it’s time to move this story along.  Enough single panel episodes that leave one feeling trapped in a bad dream…  And is part of surviving a stampede staying hunched over and low to the ground?  Must be, since that’s what Mark is doing!

The animal to Mark’s left seems to be regarding him with a certain amount of wariness and disdain. Note the sideways glance… The Cape Buffalo Stink-eye, as it were…  looks like Mark has (not surprisingly) his own place within the herd where the animals give him free reign…

…know when to fold ‘em… and clearly Mark is throwing in his hand on Chris Dyer…  poor guy.  Only sort of knew what hit him…  The karmic forces are alive and well in the Trailverse.  But does overrun mean trampled?  Literally?  It actually looks like Chris Dyer is getting overrun by The Fog… not hooves…

But clearly among Mark’s many other skills is the fact that he can out-run a Cape Buffalo at full gallop…  since he appears to be set on rescuing Lori from this marauding herd… and he needs to get out in front of them if he is to do that…

Recap for those who just might be joining story…  Chris “I have a Dirty gambling problem” Dyer has eyes for Lori “I’m a Dentist on the lam” Tompkins, and is afraid that Mark “I am a happily married man but there’s not an invitation I know how to say no to” Trail is getting in between them… So he coaxes Mark out into the tall grass, away from camp, hiding a machete behind his back (I swear I saw it a couple of days ago…) and now they are being overrun by Cape Buffalo, the baddest of Sub-Saharan Bovines…

And judging from the cloud of dust in panel two, there is an actual herd behind these leading two beasts.

Oh the humanity!  The one is bearing down on Dirty, it doesn’t look good, ladies and gents!  He has barely enough time to let out a meager thought balloon…  Will be actually get crushed/ gored/ trampled?  Will Mark get away to save Lori?  Is anyone at camp witnessing the carnage?

The way this strip jumps around these days, tomorrow’s installment might well be all of them enjoying a nice Cabernet, recounting lusty tails of stampedes avoided…  Stay tuned!

The Mighty Cape Buffalo… Nothing to trifle with, it would seem… except these appear to be a special variety with WHITE HORNS…  huh.  I wonder what that means?  Other than right now it appears to be a two-buffalo stampede…  Is that like a two-car funeral, heading for safari camp?  Well, Dirty is getting more than he bargained for at this point…  trying to get Mark eaten by an apex-preditor and ends up stirring up a heard of large bovines…

Whether it’s Bear, Hippo, or other wildlife, James Allen takes us where the action is, that’s for sure…  I wonder if he spends his spare time watching NatGeo??