breeze.
Not a soul was to be seen, and it was too early even for the birds to
sing their morning anthems.

He looked at Arnold, and saw that his friend was still enjoying profound
rest. So, laughing at his own weakness, Holden returned to his robes
and was soon dozing again.

Then a second time he wakened with the former conviction even stronger
than before.

He raised himself on his right elbow, and as he did so was startled by a
sound that is calculated to strike terror into the hearts of men quicker
than the most formidable of human foes.

It was the danger-signal of a rattlesnake--the harsh alarm that is
unmistakable even when heard for the first time, and the sinuous green
thing was poised in the centre of the tent, with head thrown back in the
attitude to strike. It had been startled by Holden's sudden movement on
awakening, and now was armed to repel its supposed enemy.

The man dared not move, for the least motion of a muscle might be
sufficient to frighten the deadly little rope of flesh, and then----?

The continued sound of the rattle had roused Arnold by this time; but at
his first stirring Holden spoke, though he managed to do so without
moving his lips.

"Keep still. There's a rattlesnake in the tent. It's got an eye on me,
and----"

But the rest of the sentence was choked, for the man's blood suddenly
ran cold as another serpent came from among the fur robes, writhing its
cold chill body across his bare hand as it lay at his side, and then
moving towards its companion.

"There's another--just crawled over my hand," whispered Holden hoarsely.

"And I see a third--over there just beyond my feet!" said Arnold. "What
on earth are we to do?"

"Lie still. We can do no more, unless we get a chance to make a bolt for
it. But they are between us and the door."

The men waited in tense silence, preserving the immovable attitudes of
statues until, as time passed, other serpents made their appearance and
the teepee was swarming with a dozen at least. They seemed to be
everywhere. They crawled over the robes and peered into the men's faces,
they wriggled beneath the covering and even passed across Holden's bared
throat. But they were no longer aggressive. They were more of an
exploring than an antagonistic bent.

"I wonder where they have come from and why they have congregated in
this particular tent?" Arnold questioned in a whisper, and, with the
question, the explanation seemed to flash into Holde