hear a sound? Quickly she raised her head and a voice spoke from behind her.

“Don’t move! Keep quiet!” the man, for it was a man’s voice, commanded.

Gale wondered hysterically if he expected her to do anything else. She couldn’t move if she wanted to. Terror made her lifeless.

“Please hurry!” she murmured.

A revolver shot was her answer and when next she looked down at her boot she shivered. The sight of the headless, mutilated body was sickening.

“Don’t look,” Jim whispered as he lifted Gale’s boot clear of the snake. “Did it bite you?”

“I don’t think so,” Gale murmured fighting to control her nerves. Now that it was all over she felt as if she must scream. It was the natural reaction and as she stood up she leaned weakly against the tree. “How did--you happen--along just in time?”

The cowboy replaced his revolver in the holster at his belt. It was the first time Gale had noticed that he wore a gun. How lucky it had been for her that he did!

“I came lookin’ for you for some more practice with yore rope,” he drawled, as he sometimes did.

“You saved my life,” Gale said gratefully.

“Shucks,” the cowboy said, flushing deep red. “How did the snake ever come to wind itself about yore leg?”

“I was asleep,” Gale said. “I’ll never forget the sight of that snake when I awoke. It was horrible!” She trembled involuntarily.

Jim patted her shoulder with clumsy kindness. “Do you reckon you can come back to the house now?”

“Of course,” Gale said and turned to follow him down the slope, sternly keeping her eyes away from that slippery, scaly, headless thing lying in the long grass.

“Do you always wear a gun, Jim?” she asked. “I never noticed it before.”

“No, Miss Gale, none of us cowboys do,” he answered. “Guns belong to the old, bad West. But here lately we been havin’ trouble and I kinda got used to havin’ one along when I go ridin’.”

“Probably on account of the cattle thieves,” Gale said to herself. Aloud she said:

“Trouble? What kind?”

“Oh, like these bank robbers,” he said evasively. “There’s always somebody willin’ to steal and honest folk have to protect themselves.”

“How did they get out of jail?” she asked as they reached the bottom of the hill and started along the trail to the ranch house.

“Sawed clean through the bars on the window,” he answered. “Probably had help from outside.”

“Has the Sheriff discovered either of them yet?”

“I reckon not. The Sheriff is good at trailin’ crooks, but these fellas are probably experienced in hidin’ out. I ’spect they’re almost to the border by now.”

“Which way are we going to travel tomorrow?” Gale asked.

“Up into the hills would be the prettiest country,” he answered.

At the corral fence they separated, Gale going on to the ranch house and Jim into the cowboys’ bunkhouse. The girls were on the porch, Janet and Carol perched at perilous angles on the railing, Virginia and Valerie on the top step, and Madge and Phyllis in chairs.

“Where have you been?” Janet demanded.

“What’s wrong?” Valerie asked.

“Wrong?” Gale questioned. She did not realize that her recent experience with the deadly rattlesnake had left her face pale and a tinge of shadow in her eyes.

“You look as though you had seen somebody’s ghost,” Carol declared.

“I came near to being one,” Gale answered, squeezing between Valerie and Virginia.

“What do you mean?” Madge asked. “Did you meet the bank robbers?”

Gale described with all the terrifying details her adventure with the snake and the girls were all speechless with amazement. When she had finished they regarded her wonderingly, fully appreciating what a close call she had had.

“I’ll bet that was the only rattlesnake in this part of the country for weeks,” Virginia declared. “But you would have to meet him.”

“Hereafter you don’t go off by yourself,” Janet said determinedly.

Gale laughed. “You needn’t caution me now. One experience is enough. You can be sure I won’t fall asleep like that again!”

Chapter IV

DISCOVERY

The ranch house was astir early the next morning. The girls dashed about in mad last minute haste. Horses were saddled and waiting. The few necessities the girls were taking were rolled in slickers and strapped behind their saddles. Tents, cooking utensils, and eating supplies were loaded on two pack horses which Tom was to lead behind his own mount. As the girls were about to mount, Mr. Wilson called Gale and Phyllis over to where he was giving some last minute instructions to Tom and Jim.

Mr. Wilson handed a small caliber revolver each to Gale and Phyllis.

“What----” Phyllis began wonderingly.

“I think you ought to have them for protection,” Mr. Wilson explained. “Against rattlesnakes--and jack rabbits. I’m trusting you two with these because I think you are the steadiest ones.”

“Gale knows about the rattlesnakes,” Tom said smiling. “I’ll bet she would have given a fortune for a gun yesterday.”

“I’ll say I would,” Gale said with a shudder. “But we will have to have some target practice, so we know which end of the gun to aim.”

“Tom can take care of that,” Jim interposed, “he’s right handy with a gun.”

“I don’t like this,” Phyllis said to Gale as the girls walked back to their horses. “Why should we need guns for protection? We are going on a peaceful trip.”

“What with bank robbers running loose,” Gale smiled. “We might be glad we have them.”

The guns were stored in the girls’ slickers and soon the party was ready to start. They waved gay farewells to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson as their horses trotted down the trail. Jim rode in front to guide them and directly behind him came Gale, Virginia, and Valerie. The other three Adventure Girls followed and Tom brought up the rear with the pack horses.

The sun was slowly creeping higher in the sky pouring its warm rays on the world below. Three hours after their start the party halted for luncheon which they ate cold from their saddle bags, pushing on immediately. Jim had a camping place in mind and he wanted to make it in plenty of time to pitch their tents by the light of day.

Gale and Virginia watched Valerie with growing alarm. The girl was looking paler and more tired with the passing of the minutes. But Valerie was too plucky to call a halt on her own account. Once she swayed visibly in her saddle. Gale, reining her horse in beside Valerie’s, put an anxious arm about her friend.

“Too tired to go on, Val? Just say so. Jim won’t mind camping right here.”

“No, don’t stop because of me,” Valerie pleaded. “I’ll stick it out.”

She would stick it out, Gale agreed admiringly, but it would take all her courage to do so. Certainly Valerie deserved to conquer the ill health that was robbing her of so much of the zest of living.

The horses mounted to the ridge of a hill and there Jim called a halt. He gestured with his arm to the valley below where a cool stream of water dashed over rocks on its way to join a bigger tributary.

“There’s our camp site,” he said, beaming, “and we’ve made it with a good hour of daylight left.”

“Thank goodness we made it at