he Indians came straight on. Had they seen? If so, goodby to life
and to the message.

The two scouts had intended to break the weeds and cloak themselves
with the stems--a camouflage of old days and new. The screen was very
thin, for concealment on all sides. But the Indians granted no time.
Trudeau and young Jack might only squirm into the very middle. An old
buffalo carcass was here. It had not been disturbed. Scraps of
brittle hide still clung to its frame-work of ribs. All that they
might do was to crawl close to the frame-work and lie beside it.

The Indians halted before reaching the wallow; they could see that it
contained no water. But presently one of their young men rode forward,
surveying the landscape; posted himself not one hundred yards from the
wallow, and there he sat, on his horse, like a sentry.

The two scouts hugged the ground; it was white with alkali, and as
seemed to them they were clearly outlined, through the yellow weeds.
Then an alarming thing happened. The buffalo carcass had not been the
only occupant of the wallow. Jack nudged Scout Trudeau, and pointed
with his thumb. A king rattle-snake, over four feet long and as thick
as their arm, was gliding for them, and the carcass.

His head was up, his tongue shot in and out; possibly the carcass was
his tipi--at any rate, they had annoyed him, and he was declaring war.

Now what to do? If they waited, he would keep on coming! Horrors! If
they moved, he would coil, and rattle. They dared not shoot; they
dared not wait--could not stand having him crawl under them or over
them, and perhaps strike; they dared not let him _rattle_.

A rattle-snake does not rattle for nothing. The Indian sentinel would
hear, would gaze, would be curious, would suspect, would approach; and
then--death to two scouts, despair for the island.

Fascinated, they watched the great, yellowish blotched snake. He
loitered, basked, his tongue played, his fangs showed, he came on,
little by little. Oh, if he would only veer off! But he was
determined. What an ugly, obstinate brute! What an abominable trick!
And yonder, still sat the vigilant Indian.

They waited until the snake was within six feet. They could fairly
smell his musky odor, and he was growing angrier and angrier--was
likely to coil and rattle, any moment. They were at their wits' end,
their nerve almost breaking, what with the menace of the snake and the
menace of the Indian look-out,