tell that a snake
don't die till sundown--much as you hurt him. If that's so, an' I
don't get to where I c'n get some help, I reckon it'll be a stand off
between him an' me as to who's goin' first."

A little later he drew Mustard to a halt, sitting very erect in the
saddle and fixing his gaze upon a tall cottonwood tree that rose near
the trail. His heart was racing madly, and in spite of his efforts, he
felt himself swaying from side to side. He had often seen a rattler
doing that--flat, ugly head raised above his coiled body, forked tongue
shooting out, his venomous eyes glittering, the head and the part of
the body rising above the coils swaying gracefully back and forth.
Yes, gracefully, for in spite of his hideous aspect, there was a
certain horrible ease of movement about a rattler--a slippery, sinuous
motion that partly revealed reserve strength, and hinted at
repressed energy.

Many times, while watching them, he had been fascinated by their grace,
and now, sitting in the saddle, he caught himself wondering if the
influence of a bite were great enough to cause the person bitten to
imitate the snake. He laughed when this thought struck him and drove
his spurs sharply against Mustard's flanks, riding forward past the
cottonwood at which he had been staring.

"Hell!" he ejaculated, as he passed the tree, "what a fool notion."

But he could not banish the "notion" from his mind, and five minutes
later, when he tried again to sit steadily, he found the swaying more
pronounced. The saddle seemed to rock with him, and even by jamming
his uninjured foot tightly into the ox-bow stirrup he could not stop
swaying.

"Mebbe I won't get very far," he said, realizing that the poison had
entered his system, and that presently it would riot in his veins, "but
I'm goin' on until I stop. I wouldn't want that damned rattler to know
that he'd made me quit so soon."

He urged Mustard to a faster pace, even while realizing that speed was
hopeless. He could never reach the Two Diamond. Convinced of this, he
halted the pony again, swaying in the saddle and holding, for the first
time, to the pommel in an effort to steady himself. But he still
swayed. He laughed mockingly.

"Now, what do you think of that?" he said, addressing the silence.
"You might think I was plum tenderfoot an' didn't know how to ride a
horse proper."

He urged the pony onward again, and for some little time rode with
bowed head, trying to k