wnee Brown knew that hiss only too well, and leaping back he snatched
a pistol from his belt.

The hiss was followed by a rattle, and now, flashing the light around,
the scout saw upon a flat rock the curled-up form of a huge rattlesnake.

The eyes of the reptile shone like twin stars, and when Pawnee Brown
discovered him he was getting ready to strike.

The rattler was less than six feet away, and the scout knew that he
could cover that space with ease. Therefore, whatever was to be done
must be done quickly.

Like a flash the pistol came up. But ere Pawnee Brown could fire a
curious thing happened.

A large drop of water, splashing down from the roof of the cavern,
caused the light to splutter and go out.

The scout was in the dark with his enemy.

More than this, he was boxed up in a narrow place, from which escape was
well-nigh impossible.

Aiming as best he could under the circumstances, he fired.

The bullet struck the flat rock, bounded up to the side wall of the
cavern and then hit him in the leg.

"Missed, by thunder!"

He jumped past the spot and moved up the cavern a distance of several
yards.

A rattle and a whirr followed, as the great rattlesnake made a vicious
strike in the dark. An intense hiss sounded out when the reptile
realized that the object of his anger had been missed.

Listening with strained ears, the boomer heard the deadly thing sliding
slowly from rock to rock, coming closer at every movement.

To flee was impossible, so with bated breath he stood his ground.

CHAPTER IV.

OUT OF THE CAVERN.

Slowly but surely the great rattlesnake came closer to where Pawnee
Brown stood motionless in the darkness of the cavern.

The reptile had been enraged by the shot the great scout fired, and now
meant to strike, and that fatally.

Listening with ears strained to their utmost, the boomer heard the form
of the snake slide from rock to rock of the uneven flooring.

The rattler was all of ten feet long and as thick around as a good-sized
fence rail.

One square strike from those poisonous fangs and Pawnee Brown's hours
would be numbered.

Yet the scout did not intend to give up his life just now. He still held
his pistol, four chambers of which were loaded.

"If only I had a light," he thought.

Retreat was out of the question. A single sound and the rattlesnake
would have been upon him like a flash.

It was only the darkness and the utter silence that made the repti