Dick hastened to comply, for by that time he also had detected the presence of the venomous reptiles. They seemed to be of a small species, such as can be found on the plains of the entire West, but their stroke carries just as sure death as though the snakes were twice the size.
The boys had often come across them of late, mostly near the colonies of gophers, for the two seemed to be able to dwell together in harmony, though possibly the snakes made an occasional meal from some of the puppies.
Roger had already laid aside his gun, and picking up a long stick, he commenced to belabor some of the coiled snakes.
“Think you own the earth do you?” Roger was saying, as he plied his stick with vigor, and knocked first one snake and then another into a wriggling mass. “Well, I want to show you that others besides you have a right to breathe, and walk where they please. That makes the fifth one I’ve smashed, Dick. Did you ever see such a nest of the ‘varmints,’ as Jasper Williams would call them?”
Roger evidently meant to keep on just as long as there was a single one of the ugly, scaly creatures in sight. He certainly had more than his share of antipathy toward all reptiles, for he never let an opportunity to kill one escape him.
When he could no longer find anything to hit, Roger consented to drop the stick, secure his rifle, and prepare to leave the scrubby timber. They could find nothing in the way of water, though there must have been something of the sort underground to have allowed those ugly dwarf trees to grow in the first place.
“There goes the silly, little wolf scurrying off,” said Roger as they mounted once more, Dick having brought his horse through the patch of woods. “He must think we set great store by his dingy hide, and would take after him. But I’m disappointed because we failed to get an antelope.”
“Better luck next time, Roger,” his comrade told him; for nothing seemed to crush the spirits of this sanguine lad.
The third day passed, and, as the blazing sun sank again beyond the glittering horizon, none of them, even by shading his eyes with his hands, could see any sign to proclaim that they were drawing near the end of the desert.
It was not a very cheerful party that sat around on blankets that night and exchanged ideas concerning their prospects of pulling through these difficulties. The horses were showing signs of the hard usage to which they had been put. Lack of forage made them hungry all the time, since the small amount of hay that could be carried was almost gone.