"O-o-o-ow!" shrilled Alf, jumping at least two feet.

"Now, what's the matter with you?" inquired Tom in feigned astonishment.

"Don't tell me you didn't hear the rattler just now," cried young
Drew fiercely.

"No; I didn't," Tom assured him. "And how could we find a
rattler--_here_? We're crossing open ground now. There is no place
within three hundred feet of us for a rattlesnake to move without our
seeing him."

Cl-cl-cl-click!

Alf Drew held back, trembling.

"I'm not going forward another step," he insisted. "This ground
is full of rattlers."

"Let's go back to camp, then, if your nerves are so unstrung,"
Reade proposed.

They turned, starting backward. Again the warning rattle sounded,
seemingly just in front of Alf, though there was no place for a snake
to conceal itself nearby.

Alf, however, turned paler still, halted and started off at right
angles to his former course. Again the rattle sounded.