His coat was smooth and glossy, not
rough and wrinkly like Old Rattler's, and his upraised head was small
and pretty--for a snake. He was the best dressed of all his kind, and
he looked his finest as he faced Old Rattler. His head was shiny
black, his throat and neck as white as milk while all down his body to
the end of his tail he was painted with rings, first white, then
black, then crimson, and every ring was bright as if it had just been
freshly polished that very day.

So the King Snake passed the sheltering fern and came right up to Old
Rattler. Rattler opened his sleepy eyes, threw himself on guard with a
snap and a buzz, and shook his bony clappers savagely. But the King of
Snakes was not afraid. Every snake has a weak spot somewhere, and that
is the place to strike him. If he hadn't a weak spot no one else could
live about him, and then, perhaps he would starve to death at last. If
he had not some strong points, where no one could harm him, he
couldn't live himself.

As the black crest rose, Old Rattler's tail grew cold, his head
dropped, his mouth closed, he straightened out his coil, and staggered
helplessly toward his hole.

This was the chance for Glittershield. With a dash so swift that all
the rings on his body--red, white, and black--melted into one purple
flash, he seized Old Rattler by his throat. He carried no weapons, to
be sure. He had neither fangs nor venom. He won his victories by
force and dash, not by mean advantage. He was quick and strong, and
his little hooked teeth held like the claws of a hawk. Old Rattler
closed his mouth because he couldn't help it, and the fangs he could
not use were folded back against the roof of his jaw.

The King Snake leaped forward, wound his body in a "love-knot" around
Old Rattler's neck, took a "half-hitch" with his tail about the
stomach, while the rest of his body lay in a curve like the letter S
between the two knots. Then all he had to do was to stiffen up his
muscles, and Old Rattler's backbone was snapped off at the neck.

[Illustration: "HE SEIZED OLD RATTLER BY HIS THROAT."]

All that remained to Glittershield was to swallow his enemy. First he
rubbed his lips all over the body, from the head to the tail, till it
was slippery with slime. Then he opened his mouth very wide, with a
huge snaky yawn, and face to face he began on Old Rattler. The ugly
head was hard to manage, but, after much straining, he clasped his jaws
around it, and the venom tri