“You want to take particular notice of those dirty looking boys,” Jack told him in a low tone, pointing to a bunch of the reptiles as he spoke, “for they are water moccasins, cowardly enough, but always ready to give you a sly stab and I’ve been told they are so poisonous that even if a man didn’t die after being struck, his wound would never heal properly and his life become a burden to him. Give the critters a wide berth always, partner.”
“Huh! you jest better believe I will, Jack–never did care much for snakes, even the harmless kinds an’ I’d jump three feet in the air when out West, if ever I heard a locust buzz, thinkin’ it must be a rattler. Me an’ the crawlin’ breed don’t mix, that’s what.”
Hardly three minutes after Perk had given expression to his dislikes, Jack caught him by the arm and with a trace of excitement that was really foreign to his nature, pointed to some object close to the trail they were following.
“Jeru-salem crickets!” gasped Jack, possibly a bit louder than discretion would warrant but Jack felt there was some measure of excuse for his outburst.
There a monstrous diamondback rattlesnake, fully five feet long and as thick through the body as a good-sized man’s thigh, had just raised its enormous flat head and opened its jaws to display its terrible fangs. Even as the two stood there and stared, the rattle began to whirr its deadly warning.
“It’s all right, Perk,” said Jack soothingly, not certain what the effect of so dangerous a neighbor might have upon his sensitive pal, “we can pass him by out of reach. A rattler, unless madly in earnest, never tries to strike further than his length for he has to get back in his coil in a hurry, being helpless to defend himself unless curled up.”
Jack showed that this was true by passing the spot, with the venomous reptile only increasing his rattle and drawing back his head. Then Perk shut his teeth hard and followed suit but it might have been noticed that he kept to the extreme edge of the narrow trail and had his muscles all set, as if in readiness to make a mighty spring if he thought the snake was about to launch his coils forward.
“Whew!” hissed Perk, after he had safely negotiated the peril that lay in the road, “I’m a’thinkin’ what risks we got to run tonight when we come a’snoopin’ ’long this way. Nigh makes my hair curl to figure on that baby comin’ slap up against my leg. Wish now I had my old leather huntin’ leggings with me to ward off them terrible fangs, each one an inch long, seemed like to me.”
“Between us, brother, I myself don’t seem to hanker traveling along this trail after dark, and I mean to carry that small flash of mine, turning the light on every few seconds for I don’t believe it would be noticed. But they tell me these whoppers are rather scarce around these sections–there may not be another inside of five miles.”
“Glory! I should hope not,” said the still trembling Perk, “but I just can’t forget we’ve got even one here to bother us. If only I dared use my gun, I’d soon knock spots out o’ him, bet you a cookey, Jack.”