“Well, the diamondbacks are found in another part of the country,” replied the other, with a laugh; “but these smaller prairie rattlers are just as poisonous, I’m told, even if they don’t look so terrible.”
“Oh! do you mean that warrior is ahunting rattlesnakes?” demanded Billie, with a shiver; for, as we happen to know, he had lately found reason to conceive a great aversion for the scaly reptiles, one and all.
“Looks like it to me,” replied Donald. “You see, their big dance comes along soon now, and as they need a lot of the wrigglers to show off before the people who come here just to see them do their stunts, why, of course they’ve got to hustle, and call in every one that lives around this section.”
They slowly advanced toward the spot where the Zuni brave was bending down, and with a stick tickling a coiled snake, in order to induce him to straighten out, so there would be little danger of his striking when he was snatched up; for it is a peculiarity of the rattlesnake that he cannot defend himself unless coiled, which is the reason they instantly throw themselves that way when alarmed.
“Oh! a heap of people believe they draw out the poison fangs, and the little sack that holds the green fluid, so that there ain’t no danger after all,” remarked Billie, in rather a loud voice, as they halted close by to watch the Zuni finish his risky task.
He must have heard what Billie said, and understood the implied slur, though he kept right on with his job. They saw him finally succeed in inducing the rattlesnake to uncoil, and start to wriggle away; when quick as a flash that dusky experienced hand shot out, the fingers closed upon the neck of the snake, and thus it was lifted triumphantly from the ground.
“He’s beckoning to us to come up closer,” said Donald, guessing what the dusky Zuni brave wanted with them; and a minute later they were bending over from their saddles, watching him, while he squeezed his captive in such a fashion that its jaws spread wide open, and revealed two long fangs projecting from the upper jaw, and from which drops of a greenish fluid were slowly exuding.
[CHAPTER XV.—A MEETING WITH THE MEDICINE MAN.]
“There, what do you say to that now, Billie?” exclaimed Donald, as he turned to see the fat chum staring at the snake, with whitened cheeks, and a horrified expression on his plump face.
“Gosh! it ain’t so that they take out the poison sack, is it?” muttered Billie; “and that stuff must be the deadly thing they push into a fellow when they strike! Oh! ain’t they the limit, though, them rattlers? And I ought to be thankful every day I live that I didn’t go all the way down into that hole when I slipped.”