ad almost forgotten
there were any in the state."

"There isn't, legally. Years ago the United States rounded them all up
and started to transport them out west to a reservation. But at St.
Augustine a few hundred made their escape and fled back to the
Everglades, where they have lived ever since without help or
protection, and ignored by the United States government."

"What kind of a race are they?" asked Walter, curiously.

"The finest race of savages I ever saw," declared Charley, warmly;
"tall, splendidly-built, cleanly, honest, and with the manners of
gentlemen--look out!" he shouted, warningly.

Walter's horse had reared back upon his haunches with a snort of
terror. Walter, though taken by surprise, was a good horseman, and
slipped from the saddle to avoid being crushed by a fall.

A few feet in front of the frightened pony lay coiled a gigantic
rattlesnake, its ugly head and tail raised and its rattles singing
ominously. Two more steps and the pony would have been upon it.

"Don't shoot," pleaded Walter as Charley drew his revolver. "I know
where I can sell that skin for $25.00, if there's no holes in it."

"Let me shoot it, Walt," pleaded Charley, anxiously, "they're awfully
dangerous."

"Aye, lad," seconded the captain, who, with Chris, had reached the
spot, "better let him shoot it, those things are too dangerous to take
chances with."

But Walter's obstinacy was roused. "Keep back, I'll fix him," he
declared confidently. "I'm going to have that skin and that $25.00."

Breaking off a dead bough from a scrub oak he approached the snake
cautiously while the rest sat in their saddles silently anxious, and
Charley edged his restive pony a little closer to the repulsive reptile.

Slowly Walter moved forward, his gaze fixed intently upon the slowly
waving head before him with its glistening little diamond eyes. Nearer
and nearer he crept till only a few feet separated him from that
venomous head with its malignant unwinking eyes.

"Strike, boy, strike, you're getting too close," shouted the captain.

"Oh, golly," shrieked Chris, "look at him, look at him."

Walter had stopped as though frozen in his tracks. His face had gone
deathly pale, and great drops of sweat stood on his forehead. The hand
that held the stick unclasped, and it rattled unheeded to the ground.

"He's charmed," cried the captain.

"Jump to one side, Walt, jump," Charley shouted, "for God's sake, jump.
It's going to s