y the
company of this sweet wiggler--not that I believe the wild yarns about
them. All lizards are non-poisonous. No poison glands have ever been
found in the mouth of these so-called monsters."

"Just look and see," rejoined the girl. "But look in the lower jaw.
Trouble is, you science sharps expected to find hollow fangs and the
sacs above, like a rattler's. Do you know why a Gila monster flops on
his back when he bites? It's to let the loose poison in his lower jaw
drain into the hollow teeth."

"Really?"

The girl faced him with a challenging look.

"If they turn over, it's as bad as being struck by a six-foot
diamond-back. They lock their jaws, and the poison---- But I've seen a
man snap the head off one of those big snakes. Let's see if you have the
nerve to toss this little lizard outside."

Lennon's smile faded as he perceived that the girl was in sober earnest.
Very naturally he hesitated. He was not given to bravado, and even
without her assertion that the reptile was deadly poisonous, he would
have loathed to touch so repulsive a creature.

But there is no spur so galling as the derisive smile of a comely young
woman. Lennon dropped his rifle, walked in beside the Gila monster, and
suddenly clutching the lizard in mid-body, flung it several yards out
upon the sun-scorched sand. The girl's scorn gave place to a look of
grave approval.

"You'll do," she said. "Fact is, they're so sluggish in the shade you
didn't run the slightest risk. You couldn't know that, though. Yes,
you'll do. Only don't try playing with the fellow out there in the sun.
The light livens them up."

The advice was needless. Lennon felt quite ready to sit down beside the
girl and start eating, though he first rubbed his hands thoroughly in
the sand. Neither had much to say. They were alike intent upon
satisfying their keen hunger and keeping a sharp lookout against the
chance of an attack.

After a time Lennon noticed that the Gila monster had crawled up on a
little sand ridge in the full glare of the mid-day sun. It was viciously
snapping its jaws and twitching its thick head from side to side.
Carmena gave no heed to the angered reptile. She was gazing off toward
the jagged hill from which had risen the distant smoke puffs.

As the girl finished her share of the hearty food she leaned sideways,
with her ungloved hand on the sand at the edge of the cliff shadow. Like
the hand, her wrist was white and well rounded. She drew off