CHAPTER XIV.

THE ZUNI SNAKE CATCHER.

Whatever the other boys may have thought about it, knowing that Billie could not have gone a great while without food, they understood his weakness too well to make any remark.

Fortunately they had something along with them; for as cowboys Donald and Adrian had long ago learned to always look ahead, since no one could tell when he would need food when abroad on the range. And so they quickly thrust into Billie's eager hands quite a quantity of stuff.

He ate like a hungry wolf, while his chums sat there in their saddles, and waited patiently for him to take the first savage edge off his appetite. Billie was mumbling to himself meanwhile, just as a starving boy might when food has come into his possession. In imagination he had been pretty far gone; but it was all right now; and soon Billie was feeling himself again.

"Thought I could make way with a cartload of grub," he said, "judging from the way my empty stomach kept griping me; but seems like I'm stalled already. P'raps it wasn't _quite_ so bad as I believed; but excuse me from ever going through such a terrible experience again. Just thinking you're starving to death is mighty near as bad as the real thing!"

"You're right, Billie; and more than one man has just died from the effects of imagination, believe me," said Adrian.

"But ain't you going to tell us all that happened to you since you lost touch with us yesterday?" demanded Donald, showing how anxious he and Adrian must be to know what their lost chum had been doing all this while; and how he had been able to keep steadily on, headed into the north.

"Yes, when we found Jupiter grazing along the border of the desert this morning," Adrian went on to say, "we thought at first you must be in camp, and we looked everywhere but couldn't see hide nor hair of you. Then Donald here noticed that while the pony had his saddle and bridle on, you'd roped him; and from that we guessed he must have broken away when you had him staked out, for your pin was at the end of the lariat. Then we _were_ in a stew, because we knew what it meant to be left on foot out on the desert."

"What made the pony break away, Billie?" asked Donald, suspiciously.

"When the wolf pack came down on me, the beast got frightened, and just left his poor master in the lurch," returned the rescued one, calmly, yet watching out of the corner of his eyes to notice the others exchange quick looks, and nod their heads, as if to say: "see, just like I told you, Billie was equal to anything that came along; he's all right, Billie is!"

"Wolves, eh?" remarked Adrian, presently.

"So the hungry critters got scent of you last night, did they, Billie?" questioned the other chum, eagerly; "and you must have had a tough time staying awake to chase the pack away. Knock over any?"

"Oh! I don't know how many, because as fast as I bowled one over the rest would jump in, and gobble him up. This morning all I could find there, was a lot of bones scattered about, and some chunks of hair."

Billie said this as coolly as though after all it were a very little matter, and hardly worth mentioning, after a fellow had alone and unaided slain a grizzly bear.

"And you've really not had any sleep all night, then?" Adrian asked; as though that was the most astonishing part of the whole business in his eyes.

"Never a wink I can truthfully say," the hero of the occasion declared, holding up his right hand in affirmation; "but I'm feeling all right again now. I could stand the wolf part of it, yes, and the keeping on guard a thousand hours, like it seemed to me; but the _starving_ was just awful. I'm mighty glad to be with you both again. And p'raps, when noontime comes, we can cook something warm."

"Oh! we'll promise you that, old fellow," laughed Adrian; "but let's be getting out of this blistering heat. I think it's even worse after that sand storm. Over yonder we've got our camp, with poor old Bray waiting for us. He pulled through in good shape, because a mule is tougher than most horses. Come, jump up in your saddle again, and see how it feels to ride."

Billie had stepped over and secured Jupiter. The truant horse actually seemed glad to greet his stout master again, for he had given several snorts, and rubbed his velvety muzzle against Billie's hand, as though apologizing for having deserted him so basely. But Billie was of a forgiving nature, and could not hold a grudge. He was moreover so delighted to see his mount again that he just forgot his grievance.

It was with some difficulty, however, that he climbed into his saddle, for his limbs seemed more or less stiff after such a wakeful and uneasy night of it. Once mounted, and they started to gallop over the billowy surface of the desert, heading toward the nearby hills.

Billie soon began to experience the old familiar sense of exhilaration as of yore.

"This is what I call great!" he called out, as he urged Jupiter on after the flying steeds of his chums; "they say you never miss the water till the well runs dry; and I'm sure I never really appreciated what a joy it was to ride till I had to peg it afoot this same morning. But I've had a great experience all around, boys, and I've learned my lesson, yes, lots of 'em."

"Glad to hear it," said Adrian, over his shoulder; "and what might one of the same be, Billie?"

"Never to scorn small things, and to lick the platter clean," responded the fat boy, promptly; "why, all morning long I've been haunted by remorse, I tell you. Seemed like I could see the ghost of every bit of food I've wasted for years rising right up to accuse me. You notice how different I'm agoing to live after this. No scraps going to waste from _my_ dish, let me tell you."

The others laughed heartily, and remarked that such noble sentiments did their author proud; also more to the effect that from that time forth they would expect to see Billie putting on additional weight, since, if he wasted nothing, his rations must increase in proportion.

Presently they reached the border of the desert, and Billie gave a cheer as he found himself actually under the shelter of the trees, whose green branches he had seen when far out on the sandy waste.

The tent was soon rounded up, with Bray tethered close by; and it seemed to Billy, whose heart was overflowing with gratitude and thanksgiving, that the old pack mule's salute was meant in honor of his coming back from the dead, as it were.

"So this is the country where the Zuni village is located, is it?" Billie asked, later on, when they began to make ready to break camp, and start off once more, this time avoiding the desert, and sticking to the hills.

"Yes, somewhere not a great distance off we can expect to run across the canyon where the rock houses that are really caves, were cut out, hundreds of years ago by the ancient cliff dwellers," Adrian went on to say.

"And," added Donald, "it wouldn't surprise me if we ran across some of the Indians any old time now, because this must be their stamping ground. Get your cayuse, Billie, and we'll be off. Course you feel rocky after not getting any sleep last night, but it'll wear away. Don't I know what it is, after night wrangling the saddle band of horses, when there were cattle rustlers hanging around, ready to stampede the herd, so the boys couldn't set out after them? All ready to start, Adrian? Then here we go!"

So the three of them set out, with the pack mule bringing up the rear, as unwilling to move as ever, and having to be half dragged along, until the fit of stubbornness wore away.

Donald remembered all that he had been told concerning the ground they were now passing over and accordingly laid his course toward the northeast.

Sometimes they were surrounded by rocks, and then again trees would add a pleasing change to the landscape.

"There's the first Indian!" remarked Donald, suddenly, as he reined in _Wireless_, and pointed ahead.

"Whatever do you s'pose he's adoing there, a-bending down, and hunting like he'd lost something precious?" Billie wanted to know. "They don't pick up diamonds around here, now, I shouldn't think, do they, Donald?"

"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.