lesnake!"

"Indeed not!" answered Giant. "But my gun---I don't want to leave
that behind."

"Do you want to go down for it?"

"Not for a thousand dollars!" answered the small youth vehemently.
"Why, a rattlesnake bite is deadly poisonous!"

"I know that as well as you do, Giant."

"You might make a cast with your fishing-line," suggested the
doctor's son.

"I will."

Giant always carried several lines, and selecting one of these, he
made a loop and to it fastened a small sinker for a weight. Then
he made a cast for the gun and secured it.

Slowly and cautiously, and keeping on the highest rocks they could
find, the three young hunters commenced to retreat. They moved back
at least fifty yards, and then made a wide detour along the hill
skirting the watercourse. All this took time, and when they thought
themselves safe it was growing dark.

"This doesn't look as if we were going to get to the cabin very
fast," remarked Snap. "How much farther have we to go?"

"A good half mile," answered Shep.

"Then we might as well go on, even if it is night," put in Giant.
"Perhaps we can catch that crazy fellow asleep and make him a
prisoner. He ought to be arrested for stealing our things."

Presently the doctor's son came to a spot that looked familiar, and
a minute later he pointed to a notch cut in a tree.

"That is my blaze," he said. "I made it so as to remember where
the cabin was located. We'll be there in a few minutes more.
Better keep quiet."

The others understood, and after that they advanced without speaking,
unless it seemed necessary, and then only in a whisper. The sun had
gone down, and it was as quiet as it was lonely.

The doctor's son was in the lead, and presently he halted and pointed
ahead. There was the dilapidated cabin, just as it had been when
visited by Shep and Whopper.

"See anybody?" asked Giant in a low voice.

"Not a soul."

"Supposing we walk around the place first?" suggested Snap.

The others agreed to this, and they circled the lonely structure at
a distance of twenty yards. Nobody appeared, nor did they hear any
sound from within.

"I may be mistaken, but it looks deserted to me," said Snap.

"Well, we thought it was deserted, too, until that fellow shied
things at us," answered the doctor's son.

At last, growing a bit bolder, the three lads walked slowly up to
the cabin, Snap and Giant with their guns ready for use and the
doctor's son with a stout sti