"
Nothing was to be seen from where they stood, but from no great distance
came the faint hollow rattle which strikes terror to man in the
wilderness. The volume of sound was suddenly augmented: there appeared
to be a duet. Immediately it was supplemented by a loud furious hissing;
a moment later by a whirr and impact.
"There are two, and they are fighting," whispered Adan, his eyes
bulging.
Roldan advanced softly to an aperture between two leaves of a cactus,
then lifted his finger to his shoulder and beckoned. Adan turned
mechanically in the opposite direction; but curiosity overcame him, and
he joined Roldan.
Between two plants not three feet apart two rattlesnakes were engaged in
mortal combat. They coiled with incredible rapidity, flew at each other
with burning eyes and darting tongues, burying a fang somewhere in the
tense bristling armours. The lashing tails struck the spiked surface of
the cactus and augmented their fury; occasionally they whipped about,
hissing deliriously, then returning as swiftly to the only enemy in
sight. They had coiled and struck some four or five times, whipping all
over their narrow arena, when as if by common consent, they retreated to
extreme opposite points, coiled as lightning strikes, and leapt at each
other.
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