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CHAPTER II
A NEST OF SERPENTS

“What is it; a rattlesnake?” asked Bob, in a hoarse whisper.

“Or a Gila monster?” inquired Ned.

“Quiet! No noise!” cautioned the professor. “I see a specimen worth ten dollars at the lowest calculation. I’ll have him in a minute.”

“Is it a bug?” asked Chunky.

“There! I have him!” yelled the scientist, making a sudden dive forward, sliding on his face, and clutching his hand deep into the grass.

As it happened there was a little puddle of water at that point, and the professor, in the excess of his zeal, pitched right into it.

“Oh! Oh my! Oh dear! Phew! Wow! Help! Save me!” he exclaimed a moment later, as he tried to get out of the slough.

The boys hurried to his aid, but the mud was soft and the professor had gone head first into the ooze, which held fast to him as though it was quicksand.

“Get him by the heels and yank him out or he’ll smother!” cried Jerry.

The other boys followed his advice, and, in a little while the bug-collector was pulled from his uncomfortable and dangerous position. As he rolled about in the grass to get rid of some of the mud, he kept his right hand tightly closed.

“What’s the matter, are your fingers hurt?” asked Bob.

“No sir, my fingers are not hurt!” snapped the professor, with the faintest tinge of impatience, which might be excused on the part of a man who has just dived into a mud hole. “My fingers are not hurt in the least. What I have here is one of the rarest specimens of the Mexican mosquito I have ever seen. I would go ten miles to get one.”

“I guess you’re welcome to ’em,” commented Jerry. “We don’t want any.”

“That’s because you don’t understand the value of this specimen,” replied the professor. “This mosquito will add to my fame, and I shall devote one whole chapter of my four books to it. This indeed has been a lucky day for me.”

“And unlucky for the rest of us,” said Bob, as he thought of the spill.

It was found that a few minor repairs had to be made to the auto, and when these were completed it was nearly noon.

“I vote we have dinner before we start again,” spoke Bob.

“There goes Chunky!” exclaimed Ned. “Never saw him when he wasn’t thinking of something to eat!”

“Well, I guess if the truth was known you are just as hungry as I am,” expostulated Chunky. “This Mexican air gives me a good appetite.”

Bob’s plan was voted a good one, so, with supplies and materials carried in the auto for camping purposes, a fire was soon built, and hot chocolate was being made.

“I’m sick of canned stuff and those endless eggs, frijoles and tortillas,” complained Bob. “I’d like a good beefsteak and some fish and bread and butter.”

“I don’t know about the other things, but I think we could get some fish over in that little brook,” said the professor, pointing to a stream that wound about the base of a near-by hill.

A minute later the boys had their hooks and lines out. Poles were cut from trees, and, with some pieces of canned meat for bait they went fishing. They caught several large white fish, which the professor named in long Latin terms, and which, he said, were good to eat.

In a little while a savory smell filled the air, for Ned, who volunteered to act as cook, had put the fish on to broil with some strips of bacon, and soon there was a dinner fit for any king that ever wielded a scepter.

Sipping their chocolate, the boys and the professor watched the sun slowly cross the zenith as they reclined in the shade of the big trees on either side of the road. Then each one half fell asleep in the lazy atmosphere.

Jerry was the first to rouse up. He looked and saw it would soon be dusk, and then he awakened the others.

“We’ll have to travel, unless we want to sleep out in the open,” he said.

Thereupon they made preparations to leave, the professor gathering up his specimens, including the Mexican mosquito that had caused him such labor.

“I think we’ll head straight for the Rio Grande,” said Jerry. “Once we get into Texas I expect we’ll have some news from Nestor, as I wrote him to let us know how the mine was getting on, and, also, to inform us if he needed any help.”

“I’ll be glad to see old Jim again,” said Bob.

“So will I,” chimed in Ned.

The auto was soon chug-chugging over the road, headed toward the States, and the occupants were engaged with their thoughts. It was rapidly growing dusk, and the chief anxiety was to reach some town or village where they could spend the night. For, though they were used to staying in the open, they did not care to, now that the rainy season was coming on, when fevers were prevalent.

The sun sank slowly to rest behind the big wooded hills as the auto glided along, and, almost before the boys realized it, darkness was upon them.

“Better light the lamps,” suggested Ned. “No telling what we’ll run into on this road. No use colliding with more ox carts, if we can help it.”

“I’ll light up,” volunteered Bob. “It will give me a chance to stretch my legs. I’m all cramped up from sitting still so long.”

Jerry brought the big machine to a stop while Bob alighted and proceeded to illuminate the big search lamp and the smaller ones that burned oil. He had just started the acetylene gas aglow when, glancing forward he gave a cry of alarm.

“What is it?” cried Jerry, seeing that something was wrong. “Is it a mountain lion?”

“It’s worse!” cried Bob in a frightened voice.

“What?”

“A regular den of snakes! The horrible things are stretched right across the road, and we can’t get past. Ugh! There are some whoppers!”

Bob, who hated, above all creatures a snake, made a jump into the auto.

“There’s about a thousand of ’em!” he cried with a shudder.

“Great!” exclaimed the professor. “I will have a chance to select some fine specimens. This is a rare fortune!”

“Don’t go out there!” gasped Bob. “You’ll be bitten to death!”

Just then there sounded on the stillness of the night a strange, whirring buzz. At the sound of it the professor started.

“Rattlers!” he whispered. “I guess none of us will get out. Probably moccasins, cotton-mouths and vipers! There must be thousands of them!”

As he spoke he looked over the side of the car, and the exclamation he gave caused the boys to glance toward the ground. There they beheld a sight that filled them with terror.

As the professor had said, the ground was literally covered with the snakes. The reptiles seemed to be moving in a vast body to some new location. There were big snakes and little ones, round fat ones, and long thin ones, and of many hues.

“Let’s get out of this!” exclaimed Ned. “Start the machine, Jerry!”

“No! Don’t!” called the professor. “You may kill a few, but the revolving wheels of the auto will fling some live ones up among us, and I have no desire to be bitten by any of these reptiles. They are too deadly. So keep the car still until they have passed. They are probably getting ready to go into winter quarters, or whatever corresponds to that in Mexico.”

“It will be lucky if they don’t take a notion to climb up and investigate the machine and us,” put in Jerry. “I have—”

He gave a sudden start, for, at that instant one of