ted to try to climb round to the other side. I
_didn't_ want to jest yet, bein' still shaky from the drop, which, as
things turned out, was just as well for me.

"To my right a bit of a ledge, maybe six or eight inches wide, ran off
along the cliff-face for a matter of ten or a dozen feet, then slanted
up, an' widened out agin to another little pocket, or shelf like, of
bare rock, about level with the top o' my head. From this shelf a
narrow crack, not more than two or three inches wide, kind o'
zigzagged away till it reached the top o' the cliff, perhaps forty
foot off. It wasn't much, but it looked like somethin' I could git a
good finger-hold into, if only I could work my way along to that
leetle shelf. I was figurin' hard on this, an' had about made up my
mind to try it, an' was reachin' out, in fact, to start, when I
stopped sudden.

"A good, healthy-lookin' rattler, his diamond-pattern back bright in
the sun, come out of the crevice an' stopped on the shelf to take a
look at the weather.

"It struck me right off that he was on his way down to this pocket o'
mine, which was maybe his favorite country residence. I didn't like
one bit the idee o' his comin' an' findin' me there, when I'd never
been invited. I felt right bad about it, you bet; and I'd have got
away if I could. But not bein' able to, there was nothin' fer me to do
but try an' make myself onpleasant. I grabbed up a handful o' dirt an'
threw it at the rattler. It scattered all 'round him, of course, an'
some of it hit him. Whereupon he coiled himself like a flash, with
head an' tail both lifted, an' rattled indignantly. There was nothin'
big enough to do him any damage with, an' I was mighty oneasy lest he
might insist on comin' home to see who his impident caller was. But I
kept on flingin' dirt as long as there was any handy, while he kept on
rattlin', madder an' madder. Then I stopped, to think what I'd better
do next. I was jest startin' to take off my boot, to hit him with as
he come along the narrow ledge, when suddenly he uncoiled an' slipped
back into the crevice.

"Either it was very hot, or I'd been a bit more anxious than I'd
realized, for I felt my forehead wet with sweat; I drew my sleeve
across it, all the time keeping my eyes glued on the spot where the
rattler'd disappeared. Jest then, seemed to me, I felt a breath on the
back o' my neck. A kind o' cold chill crinkled down my backbone, an' I
turned my face 'round sharp.

"Will you