Ginger begged for the rattle, to serve as a reminder of his narrow escape, and so Elmer cut it off for him.
"If I had time I'd like to skin the beast," the latter remarked, "for he's beautifully marked, and would make a nice tie, or a pocketbook. But in order to make a good job I'd require an hour or more, and we don't want to carry the thing along with us until night."
"Why do you say 'he' when you mention the rattler, Elmer?" asked Mr. Garrabrant, who was not above seeking new information from one who had been fortunate enough to experience the actual realities of wild life.
"Well, you see that the skin has black diamond-shaped marks on it. If it had been a female these would have been more along a brownish order. At any rate, that's what I've been told out where I met with these things frequently," Elmer stated.
"And I've no doubt but what you're quite right, Elmer," remarked the scout master. "I've noticed the same thing in connection with quite a number of birds, the female being coated a modest brown, whereas the male was a lustrous black. But we must be moving. I'm glad, Ginger, that it isn't necessary to practice on you for snakebite."
"Yas," muttered the black man, "an' de wustest t'ing 'bout de hull bizness am de fack dat dey ain't eben a single drap ob snake pizen in de hull bilin crowd. So 'deed, I is right glad myself now dat de leetle critter didn't git tuh me."
"And there goeth the only chance I've had this many a day to get a little anatomical practice," Ted was grumbling; though of course the boys understood that although his manner of talk might seem so blood-thirsty, the amateur surgeon was only joking.
But Ginger, after that, often watched Ted suspiciously and refused to be left alone in camp with him.
Ten minutes of stout rowing brought them to the mouth of Paradise Creek, where the waters from the other lake emptied into Jupiter. Joyfully they started to navigate these unknown regions. Elmer's boat was in the lead, though for that matter not a single one in the party had ever before been as far up the chains of waterways as this.
When even the scout master realized that those who handled the oars were becoming exhausted, he called a halt and changed around, bringing fresh recruits forward. He himself did yeoman service pulling, and Ginger also made his muscles add considerable value to the progress of the second boat.