the superintendent at the Red Spar Mine had told them was worth seeing on account of the view, as well as the fact that it had more venomous reptiles to the square foot than any other section of the State, they had prowled around, and used the glasses Adrian carried, until tired.

Then Donald and Adrian had thrown themselves down, saying they would take it easy for another half hour, when it would be time to make a start on the return trip, if they wished to reach the mine before night set in.

Broncho Billie kept on “rooting,” for he always loved to “browse around” as he called it, in every old place he could find, looking for curious things to add to the collection he was making of strange objects calculated to astonish his boy friends at home in the East, when he returned there later on.

“I’ve heard a heap about that blessed Gila Monster,” he had told the others on several occasions since starting out on this day’s gallop and climb; “and perhaps now we might run across a single

specimen, where there are so many venomous toads and rattlesnakes and such. Oh! don’t shake your wise old heads, and look at me in that way. Just you make sure I ain’t going to touch anything like that! I’ve been duly warned by Si Ketcham the ranch foreman, and also Harris over here at the Red Spar Mine, to keep my distance. But if I could only get a specimen, and stuff it, I’d be a happy Broncho Billie.”

Ten minutes afterward the two who were resting heard him calling to them.

“Oh! just come over here and see the rattlesnake cage I’ve struck, fellows! Must be a regular nest of the varmints, dozens and dozens asunning themselves down in this rocky pit.”

“Hold on there, be careful, Billie, what you do!” called Donald, as he and his chum scrambled to their feet; but it was only to hear a wild screech from the fat boy; and then followed a terribly significant rattling of shale that struck them with a cold chill.

CHAPTER II.—BILLIE HAS A CLOSE CALL.

“Oh! Billie’s fallen down in that rattlesnake den!” gasped Adrian, even while he and Donald were jumping over the rocks as fast as their legs would carry them, and headed in the direction where just ten seconds before they had seen the fat chum waving his arms excitedly to attract their attention, only to suddenly slip and disappear from view.

In all their experiences with the clumsy Billie, the two boys probably never had such a sensation of absolute horror sweep over them as at that particular minute.

They must have pictured all sorts of terrible results springing from this weakness on the part of Billie to do just the very thing he should have avoided. For him to make a misstep, and fall into that hole in the rocks where he had just told them dozens of poisonous snakes were coiled, and wriggling about, was possibly the greatest calamity that could have happened to him. And it might be the last mistake poor clumsy Billie was ever apt to make in this world of woe.

Spurred on by fear, and almost dreading to peer

into the pit, the two boys reached the edge in a very few seconds. Both of them shut their teeth hard as they proceeded to thrust their heads out in order to look downward.

What they saw gave them a new thrill.

Billie was there, but he had not fallen all the way to the bottom of the hole, it appeared. His old lucky streak seemed to still hold good, for he had succeeded, somehow or other,—and Billie could never explain in what way it came about,—in clutching hold of the rocks as he fell, so that he was clinging there, with his fat legs kicking wildly in space, and not more than five feet from the bottom of the rocky pit.

And just as he had so exultantly shouted when he wanted to attract his resting companions to view the strange sight, the floor of the den seemed to be almost carpeted with squirming reptiles, as though this might be a regular breeding place for rattlesnakes.

They were some of them monsters, while others seemed to be of the smaller species so generally found on the plains, and usually inhabiting the burrows of prairie dogs; but which are just as deadly as their diamond-back cousins.

The dropping down upon them of numerous small fragments of rock, caused by the scrambling of Billie when he tried to keep from falling, had aroused many of the half dormant reptiles, so that they were

making quite a din with their rattles just then, and showing signs of sudden anger, as they coiled, and waited for the intruder to land among them.

Billie had been looking down at them, but appearing to know that his chums must have arrived above, he turned a white, appealing face up toward them. Such fear the others had never seen in all their lives; but chances were their own faces must have been just as white at that same instant.

“Help me, boys, for goodness sake!” gasped poor Billie, as he squirmed there, unable to find the slightest perch for his dangling feet, so that all of his great weight came upon his arms alone, and they must have been sorely tried when he first clutched hold of the rough face of the rock to check his descent.

“Hold on like everything, Billie!” called Donald, excitedly.

“Ain’t I doing that same; but please get busy and start something to save me, boys!” groaned the one in peril. “It’s just awful hanging here, and listening to them use their old rattleboxes that way.”

“How long can you hold out?” demanded Donald, “for if I could run over to our ponies and snatch up a rope, I’d have you out of that in a jiffy.”

“Go!” pleaded Billie. “Anything, so that you’re on the jump! I’ll do the best I know how to keep hanging here; but it’s pretty tough on a fellow!”

Donald had already disappeared, and was flying

like the wind toward the spot where their mounts were fastened, leaping over rocks that stood in the way as if they were next door to nothing.

Adrian, left with the lad who was in such desperate straits, busied himself in looking around, in the vague hope of discovering some means for rendering “first aid to the injured.” He remembered seeing certain queer vines growing from fissures in the rocks in some places, and if one of these only happened to be within reaching distance it might prove valuable now.

Luck seemed to be with him, for what should he sight but an unusually thick specimen of this same vine not ten feet away.

Snatching out his sharp-edged hunting knife, which he always kept in prime condition, Adrian sprang over to where he had discovered this treasure.

“Oh! don’t leave me alone, Adrian!” shrieked the fat boy, piteously; for how was he to know what had caused the other to vanish from his agonized view?

But Adrian was already cutting away fiercely; and although the vine proved very tough, he had it hacked through in next to no time, such was the vigor he put into his work.

Then back he sprang, trailing the vine with him; and when he again thrust his eager face over the edge of the pit, doubtless that was the most delightful

vision poor alarmed Billie had ever seen in all his life.

“Oh! ain’t I glad you didn’t leave me, Adrian!” he cried, almost whimpering in his tremendous excitement.

“How are you holding out, Billie?” called the other.

“Only middling! It’s getting worse and worse every second,” replied the one who was hanging on so desperately below, some ten feet or more. “You see, I haven’t got much of a hold, and I don’t dare try and change my grip because if I once started going there’d be no stopping me. Is Donald coming back yet, Ad, tell me please?”

“I don’t think he’s quite got to the horses yet, Billie!”

“Oh!