Leonidas looked. It was indeed Mr. Burroughs; but he was evidently
only taking a short cut towards the Ridge, where his men were working.
Leonidas had seen him take it before. But it was the principal trail on
the steep hillside, and they must eventually meet. A man might evade
it by scrambling through the brush to a lower and rougher trail; but a
woman, never! But an idea had seized Leonidas. "I can stop him," he said
confidently to her. "You just lie low here behind that rock till I come
back. He hasn't seen you yet."

She had barely time to draw back before Leonidas darted down the trail
towards her husband. Yet, in her intense curiosity, she leaned out
the next moment to watch him. He paused at last, not far from the
approaching figure, and seemed to kneel down on the trail. What was he
doing? Her husband was still slowly advancing. Suddenly he stopped. At
the same moment she heard their two voices in excited parley, and then,
to her amazement, she saw her husband scramble hurriedly down the trail
to the lower level, and with an occasional backward glance, hasten away
until he had passed beyond her view.

She could scarcely realize her narrow escape when Leonidas stood by her
side. "How did you do it?" she said eagerly.

"With a rattler!" said the boy gravely.

"With a what?"

"A rattlesnake--pizen snake, you know."

"A rattlesnake?" she said, staring at Leonidas with a quick snatching
away of her skirts.