The doctor’s son was the only person capable, just then, of using a gun, and having no weapon of his own he grabbed Snap’s and blazed away.  Whether he hit a snake or not he could not tell.  There was a hissing and rustling among the torn away vines, and when the smoke of the discharge cleared away the snakes were no longer to be seen.

“Ugh! what—–­a—–­a thing t—–­to happen!” said Giant with a shiver.  His emotion was so deep he could scarcely speak.

“Where are the snakes now?” asked Snap, and drew himself up on the highest rock he could find.

“I don’t know—–­hiding, I suppose,” answered the doctor’s son as he peered around sharply for a sight of the reptiles.

The three boys waited for fully two minutes, not daring to make a move.  The vines lay where they had been cast, and between them lay Giant’s gun, which he had dropped when trying to leap to safety.

“I guess we had better get out of this locality,” said Snap at length.  “I have no desire to be bitten by a rattlesnake!”

“Indeed not!” answered Giant.  “But my gun—–­I don’t want to leave that behind.”

“Do you want to go down for it?”

“Not for a thousand dollars!” answered the small youth vehemently.  “Why, a rattlesnake bite is deadly poisonous!”

“I know that as well as you do, Giant.”

“You might make a cast with your fishing-line,” suggested the doctor’s son.

“I will.”

Giant always carried several lines, and selecting one of these, he made a loop and to it fastened a small sinker for a weight.  Then he made a cast for the gun and secured it.

Slowly and cautiously, and keeping on the highest rocks they could find, the three young hunters commenced to retreat.  They moved back at least fifty yards, and then made a wide detour along the hill skirting the watercourse.  All this took time, and when they thought themselves safe it was growing dark.

“This doesn’t look as if we were going to get to the cabin very fast,” remarked Snap.  “How much farther have we to go?”

“A good half mile,” answered Shep.

“Then we might as well go on, even if it is night,” put in Giant.  “Perhaps we can catch that crazy fellow asleep and make him a prisoner.  He ought to be arrested for stealing our things.”

Presently the doctor’s son came to a spot that looked familiar, and a minute later he pointed to a notch cut in a tree.

“That is my blaze,” he said.  “I made it so as to remember where the cabin was located.  We’ll be there in a few minutes more.  Better keep quiet.”

The others understood, and after that they advanced without speaking, unless it seemed necessary, and then only in a whisper.  The sun had gone down, and it was as quiet as it was lonely.

The doctor’s son was in the lead, and presently he halted and pointed ahead.  There was the dilapidated cabin, just as it had been when visited by Shep and Whopper.