Boys of The Fort Part 15

He prepared his bait with care, and then dropped his line into the hole.

Almost immediately he felt a nibble, and, giving a jerk, found he had caught something that was both large and powerful.

"Gracious, it must be a whopper!" he muttered, as the fish darted hither and thither. Then he braced back on the rock, to play the game, for bringing in the catch at once seemed out of the question. The pole bent greatly, and he was afraid it would snap on him.

He could not stand on the slippery rock very well, and so stepped behind it, on a number of loose stones. Hardly had he done so when he heard a strange hissing. Looking down, he saw a snake glide from under the rock.

In a moment more the angry reptile faced him.

CHAPTER XIV.

OVER THE MOUNTAIN TOP.

Darry was much alarmed, and with good reason. Never before had he faced such a snake, and the reptile looked ready to spring upon him at any instant.

What to do the boy did not know, yet instinctively he leaped back to the top of the rock. Then the fish gave a jerk which almost took him from his feet.

"Joe! Will!" he shouted. "Come this way! I'm in a pickle!"

"What's the matter?" shouted Captain Moore, and soon he and his brother were coming forward as quickly as they could.

In the meantime Darry was having his hands full, for the big fish was bound to get away. At the bottom of the rock lay the snake, with head raised and mouth wide open. Its eyes shone like diamonds.

"A snake! Kill it!" shrieked Darry.

"A snake?" echoed Joe. "Where?"

"At the bottom of this big rock. Oh, my, he's going to come up!"

"I see him," put in Captain Moore.

As he spoke the snake made a leap for the top of the rock. As the reptile went up, Darry went down, and ran along the brook's edge, still with his fishing-pole in his hand.

Catching up a sharp stone, Captain Moore flung it at the snake, hitting the reptile in the tail. At once the thing whirled around, and now forgetting Darry it turned on its a.s.sailant.

"He's coming for you!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Joe. "Run, Will, or you'll be bitten sure!"

"I'm not running from a snake," answered the young officer, and in a trice he whipped out his pistol. As the snake came on he let drive. His aim was true, and the snake dropped with its head half severed from its body.

"Good for you!" said Joe, and now he picked up a stone as large as his hand. This he dropped directly on the quivering head, and thus ended the battle, although the body of the snake continued to wriggle for a long while afterward.

With white face and set teeth, Darry continued to play his catch and he was still at it when Joe and his brother came rushing up.

"Did the snake bite you?" questioned the young captain. "Why didn't you pull in?"

"I've got something big on," answered Darry. "I didn't want to miss it."

"Well, I never!" gasped Captain Moore. "And you didn't let go even with that snake at your heels? Well, you like a fish better than I do, I can tell you that."

Again the pole bent and threatened to break, but Darry knew what he was doing, and promptly let the fish have more line. Then he wound in, and as the fish unexpectedly came close to sh.o.r.e he gave a sudden strong, steady sweep, and up came the prize on the rocks, flapping and flopping violently.

"My, what a whopper!" cried Joe. "He must weigh at least seven or eight pounds!"

"He felt as if he weighed about forty when he was in the water,"

returned Darry, a little crest-fallen that the catch was not larger.

"That's the biggest fish I've ever seen taken out of this stream," said the young captain. "You can be proud of it, Darry. But to hold on when that snake was behind you----" He shook his head.

"Oh, I knew you'd come up and take care of that, Cousin Will."

"But I might have been too late."

"Was it a poisonous one?"

"Some claim they are poisonous, but the surgeon up at the fort says not.

Still I wouldn't want to risk a bite."

"Perhaps there are more around," suggested Joe.

"No, the peculiarity of this variety of snakes is that they always travel alone. If they meet they fight until one or the other is dead."

"Did you ever see such a fight, Will?"

"I did, when I first came to these parts. I was riding over a rocky trail when my horse suddenly stopped, nearly throwing me. On looking ahead to find out what had frightened my animal, I discovered two of these snakes. They were facing each other, with mouths wide open and fangs showing. Each was so interested in the other that neither noticed me or the horse. They faced each other for fully a minute, and during that time began to hiss louder and louder. Suddenly they sprang at each other, and one snake was stung in the eye. He curled himself around the other snake's neck, and in an instant both were in a tight ball. They rolled around and around among the rocks. Once in a while a head would show itself, and then there would be more hissing. After ten minutes the ball fell gradually apart, and then one snake crawled slowly away, more dead than alive. The other snake proved to be dead, with both eyes torn from its head."

"Didn't you kill the other snake?" asked Darry.

"I did. That's the first and only battle I ever saw between snakes, and it was terrible while it lasted, I can tell you that."

Fishing over, they went into camp, and here rested until old Benson came back.

"The colonel was tickled to death to receive so much deer meat," said the old scout. "And he says you can stay until Sat.u.r.day night if you wish. His lady said she had been wanting some venison for several weeks."

Captain Moore felt glad to think he could be out four days more.

"We'll have a grand time now," he said. "Benson, we can go right over yonder mountain, can't we?"

"To be sure," answered the scout.

"Is the hunting good over there?" asked Joe.

"Yes, lad. There used to be some buffalo there."

"Good! Let us get a buffalo by all means!" cried Darry.

"You go slow about tackling a buffalo, especially a bull," said the young captain. "If we do sight a buffalo you let Benson manage the whole affair."