But the girls insisted, and while they were excitedly talking, the snake himself, seeing that he was not attacked, solved the matter by uncoiling and gliding away into the bushes at the side of the road.
“A perfectly good bunch of rattles gone to waste,” said Jack disgustedly, as they prepared to start on again.
“He’s given us a tip anyway to be on the lookout,” warned Walter. “Where there’s one there may be others. Joel says they’re not very plentiful about here, but he does run across them sometimes. I wonder what Joel would say if he knew we had a chance to kill one and didn’t do it.”
“It doesn’t matter what Joel thinks,” said Bess. “I’m glad we let him go.”
“You can’t help handing it to the old boy for pluck,” said Jack, with grudging admiration. “He was ready to fight the whole six of us.”
“If it had been a regiment, it would have been just the same,” remarked Paul.
“He kept that old buzzer of his working overtime,” laughed Walter. “No striking on the sly for him. He keeps telling you just what he hopes to do to you.”
“It’s the first time I’ve met a rattler under such circumstances, and I hope it will be the last,” said Bess.
“I guess his snakeship feels the same way about us, so honors are even,” laughed Paul.
The party kept a sharp lookout from that time on, but no other snakes were encountered, and a few minutes later the logging camp came into view.