“You can be mighty lucky that you weren’t struck,” declared Hixon emphatically. “When I was out in the gold mines in the northern part of this state I knew a man who was struck twice by a rattler, and he came about as close to dying as any man I ever saw.”
The adventure had so unnerved Roger that Frank Andrews excused him for the rest of the day, and he went back to the construction camp, taking the remains of the rattlesnake with him. Here the story about the reptile soon spread; and that evening all the men connected with the camp came in to view the rattlesnake.
“I’m very thankful that you got out of this as luckily as you did,” remarked Mr. Obray to Roger. Then he told all of his men that they must be very careful when they went among the rocks and through the bushes. “Because, you know,” he explained, “where there is one rattlesnake there may be more. I was told by those who made the first survey for the railroad that they saw no snakes of any kind in this vicinity. Evidently, however, there was one snake that they missed.”
“And I hope he’s the only one,” put in Frank Andrews.
The snake scare was the main topic of conversation for several days, and it is safe to say that no one went anywhere without having his eyes wide open for a possible appearance of some reptile. But no more snakes—rattlers or otherwise—put in an appearance.
Phil had written that he would come out to Montana in about a week and would stop at the construction camp before going to the Endicott place. Dave and Roger, of course, looked forward to the visit with much pleasure.
“We’ll have to ask for a day off just to show Phil around,” said Dave.
“That’s so. And among other points of interest we can show him the spot where you killed the rattler,” answered his chum, with a grim smile.
“Yes, we can do that.”
“I hope Shadow Hamilton comes with him. I could even stand it to hear some of Shadow’s oldest chestnuts of stories,” went on Roger. “It would seem like old times at Oak Hall.”