me instant
the chill hand relaxed its grasp, and set me free.

The stinging sensation, however, awoke me; and my eyes mechanically
turned towards the hand, where I still felt pain.

Sure enough my wrist was punctured and bleeding!

A feeling of horror ran through my veins, as the "sker-r-rr" of the
_crotalus_ sounded in my ear; and, looking around, I saw the glittering
body of the reptile extended along the grass, and gliding rapidly away!

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

STUNG BY A SNAKE.

The pain was not a dream; the blood upon my wrist was no illusion. Both
were real. I was bitten by a _rattlesnake_!

Terror-stricken I sprang to my feet; and, with an action altogether
mechanical, passed my hand over the wound, and wiped away the blood. It
was but a trifling puncture, such as might have been made by the point
of a lancet, and only a few drops of blood oozed from it.

Such a wound need not have terrified a child, so far as appearance went;
but I, a man, _was_ terrified, for I knew that that little incision had
been made by a dread instrument--by the envenomed fang of a serpent--and
_in one hour I might be dead_!

My first impulse was to pursue the snake and destroy it; but before I
could act upon that impulse the reptile had escaped beyond my reach. A
hollow log lay near--the trunk of a large tulip-tree, with the
heart-wood decayed and gone. The snake had made for this--no doubt its
haunt--and before I could come up with it, I saw the long slimy body,
with its rhomboid spots, disappear within the dark cavity. Another
"sker-r-rr" reached my ears as it glided out of sight. It seemed a note
of triumph, as if uttered to tantalise me!

The reptile was now beyond my reach, but its destruction would not have
availed me. Its death could not counteract the effect of its poison
already in my veins. I knew that well enough, but for all I would have
killed it, had it been in my power to do so. I felt angry and vengeful.

This was but my first impulse. It suddenly became changed to a feeling
of terror. There was something so weird in the look of the reptile,
something so strange in the manner of its attack and subsequent escape,
that, on losing sight of it, I became suddenly impressed with a sort of
supernatural awe--a belief that the creature was possessed of a fiendish
intelligence!

Under this impression I remained for some moments in a state of
bewilderment.

The sight of the blood, and the stinging sensat