ve, for he felt entirely sure of her broad humanity,
outside of their one difference. He felt the need of her practical sense.
Soon he had drifted into thinking of Anne entirely. Not bitterly now, but
with a steady longing. The gray light of the waning moon, sifting through
the boughs, was the true lumina for reverie. Why had he not answered her
letter? Perhaps by this time--

What was that moving in the grass? He had noticed a sort of something
before. He threw up his right hand in a threatening gesture, to frighten
the intruder away.

Instantly he got his answer, and an icy wind seemed to ruff his
hair--that insistent, dry, shrilling sound that will make a man's blood
turn cold if anything will--the whirring defiance of a rattlesnake!

Jim thought quick and hard, with chills and fever coursing over him _ad
libitum_. He did not want to waken and frighten the boy. He managed to
slip his arm out without disturbing the sleeper. But now! There wasn't a
club around except the short sticks of the fire. A two-foot stick is not
the proper equipment for rattler hunting, except to those born with
nerves so strong that they do not hesitate to catch Mr. Crotalus by the
tail and snap his head off.

Jim thought of the rope he had used for a cinch, and made for it with his
eye on the snake, lest the latter should approach closer to the boy.

With a deep thankfulness for the heft of the rope, he returned and struck
with all the strength of his big body, and pounded away in a sort of
crazy rage, although the first stroke had done the business.

He snapped the sweat from his brow as he looked down at the still
writhing reptile.

"My God! What might have happened if the boy hadn't waked me?" he
thought. The superstition of the miner rose in him rampant. "I believe
that kid's going to bring me good luck," he said. "Darned if I don't.
Well, I could stand some."

He took up the body of the rattler on a stick and heaved it far away,
then lit his pipe.

"I don't think I care for any more sleep to-night," he laughed. "Like
Ches, it ain't that anything will hurt me out here, but I'm everlastingly
scared."

He watched the night out, revelling in his enjoyment of the mystery of
the coming morning, that phase of the day which never ceases to be
unreal, and which calls out of the watcher sentiments and emotions he is
a stranger to for the rest of the day.

The sun hung on the sharp point of Old Dog-Tooth like a portent, before
he woke