made a long leap for the doorway. "That was a narrow escape. S'pose I
hadn't a woke up?"

Then he shuddered, but recovering, hunted up a cudgel and cautiously
returned within the hut.

There, within a few inches of where the lad's feet had rested as he
slept, was a large rattlesnake still in its coil and giving forth its
ominous rattle. A dexterous blow or two finished the reptile, but the
odor given forth by the creature in its anger filled the hut.

"Pah!" ejaculated Ralph. "I must get out of here. The place would
sicken a dog."

He returned to the open air, now freshened by the vanished rain, and
round to his delight, that a moon several days old was visible in the
west. The clouds had disappeared, and there seemed every prospect of a
clear and quiet night.

"It is light enough to see to travel if I can only find the road
again," he reflected. "Anything is better than staying here."

Taking the direction in which it seemed to him that the trail ought to
be, he sought eagerly for the narrow strip of white that would indicate
the wished for goal. Presently he heard a distant sound.

"It may be the deer a whistling," thought he, listening intently.
"But, no; that ain't made by no deer. I believe--it's--somebody a
coming along."