“There’s about a thousand of ’em!” he cried with a shudder.
“Great!” exclaimed the professor. “I will have a chance to select some fine specimens. This is a rare fortune!”
“Don’t go out there!” gasped Bob. “You’ll be bitten to death!”
Just then there sounded on the stillness of the night a strange, whirring buzz. At the sound of it the professor started.
“Rattlers!” he whispered. “I guess none of us will get out. Probably moccasins, cotton-mouths and vipers! There must be thousands of them!”
As he spoke he looked over the side of the car, and the exclamation he gave caused the boys to glance toward the ground. There they beheld a sight that filled them with terror.
As the professor had said, the ground was literally covered with the snakes. The reptiles seemed to be moving in a vast body to some new location. There were big snakes and little ones, round fat ones, and long thin ones, and of many hues.
“Let’s get out of this!” exclaimed Ned. “Start the machine, Jerry!”
“No! Don’t!” called the professor. “You may kill a few, but the revolving wheels of the auto will fling some live ones up among us, and I have no desire to be bitten by any of these reptiles. They are too deadly. So keep the car still until they have passed. They are probably getting ready to go into winter quarters, or whatever corresponds to that in Mexico.”
“It will be lucky if they don’t take a notion to climb up and investigate the machine and us,” put in Jerry. “I have—”