and two horrible fangs, crooked and venomous, shot out on each
side his open jaws. In the centre of the coil, and just behind the head
which vibrated to and fro with horrible eagerness, the rattles kept in
languid play, as if tired of warning her.

Ralph, pale as death and trembling all over, stooped down and seized a
fragment of rock; but Lina was too near, he dared not hurl it. The young
girl enticed by the floating leaves which the sun struck so brightly
around the serpent, had her foot poised to spring forward.

"Lina!" cried Ralph, in a low voice, "Lina!"

"In one moment," cried the girl, laughing wilfully; "wait till I get
those leaves drifting across the rock there."

The gipsy hat had fallen on one side; her hands were full of red leaves,
and she was smiling saucily. This unconsciousness of danger was
horrible. The young man shrunk and quivered through all his frame.

"Lina, step aside--to the right--dear Lina, I entreat, I insist!"

His voice was deep and husky, scarcely more than a whisper, and yet full
of command.

Lina looked back, and her smiling lips grew white with astonishment.
Ralph stood above her pale as marble; his hand grasping the rock was
uplifted, his fierce, distended eyes looked beyond her. Wild with
nameless dread the young girl stepped backward, following his glance
with her eyes. Her breath was checked--she could not scream. The
glittering eyes of the rattlesnake, though turned upon another, held her
motionless. A prickly sensation pierced her lips through and through, as
the snake loosened his coils and changed his position so abruptly, that
his back glittered in the sunshine, like a mass of jewels rapidly
disturbed, making her blind and dizzy with the poisonous glow. Still she
moved backward like a statue recoiling from its base.

"Now," whispered Ben, "now give it to him."

A crash--a spring--and like a fiery lance the rattlesnake shot by her,
striking her garments as he went, and, falling short of his enemy,
coiled himself for a new spring.

Ralph's hand was uplifted as the fragment of rock had left it; and
there, within a few feet, lay the rattlesnake making ready for a second
spring, and quivering through all its folds.

She uttered a wild cry, stooped quick as lightning, seized a fragment of
rock,--dashed it with both hands upon the rattlesnake, and, rushing by,
threw herself before Ralph. Her eyes turned with horror upon the work
she had done.

"Oh, have mercy! have mer