Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 13, 1925 — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THROW UP ways, Margie, and you can get a drink there.”’ The two men followed her in subdued si- lence. “ What do you make of it, Friday?” Red whispered. The ancient mountaineer shook his hoary head. ‘‘ Women is jest an eternal mystery t’ me, Red, I pass.” “ But what’s got into the kid?” “Do ya reckon, Red,” the other said per- plexedly, “she wants ya t’ make love t’ her?” The red-haired highwayman snorted. “Oh, Friday, act natural. That girl would fall into a screamin’ faint if I so much as said the word dove out loud. It’s all new to her, and I guess she’s a little rattled.”” He raised his voice. ‘“ Margie, here we are. Vl hold your hoss. Ya see that faint trail leadin’ t’ward that pile o’ black rocks yon- der? You'll find a good spring a bubblin’ up in there. Friday and J’ll wait here for you. We’ve got to watch this trail close, you know.” “Tl hurry,” she said wearily, and slipped down from her horse. She followed the faint path through low scrub and, a little more than a hundred feet from the road, found the spring, which bubbled up, crystal clear in a nest of moss-grown black rocks. She knelt down and put her parched lips into the icy black water. When she lifted her head and dashed the clinging drops of water from her lips, she suddenly went limp, for not four feet from her, coiled on a dry flat rock, was a green and yellow snake, its graceful, beautiful head lifted from the coils of its thick body, its eyes shining upon her like gems. Too terrified to utter a sound, she could only stare at the snake. She had never seen a diamondback rattler before, but from the sharp demarcations on its thick coils, she identified it. She impulsively placed her hand over her mouth and gnawed at it. And at this sud- den gesture the snake’s eyes seemed to fill with a venomous gleam, and its body seemed to stiffen. Chilling waves of terror swept over her. She tried to move her knees, with the intention of backing slowly YOUR HANDS. 527 away, but they would not move. She opened her mouth to scream for help, but still no sound would come from it. Every muscle in her body seemed to be gripped by a freezing paralysis. She groaned, and at that alien sound the rattler drew in its coils more tightly. She had heard that rattlesnakes strike always for the throat, and her terrified imagination pictured long, curving white fangs buried in her white throat. The snake was watching her with unre- lenting venom. With every slight swaying of her body its graceful head likewise swayed. If her shoulders swayed back- ward, its head swayed forward. Its long gleaming body seemed suddenly to be in tune with the impulses racing in hers. Be- yond question, that beautiful shining coil would untangle and come leaping at her with the precision of an arrow if she moved or cried out. | And now that she was faced by death in this horrible form, she did not want to die. A few minutes earlier, she would have wel- comed death-—-a death no less swift and violent than this. But now life was sweet and worth the living. Suddenly a brittle crackling filled the chill mountain air. It seemed to rise up in waves of insistent sound from all about her—like the buzzing of a locust, only im- measurably louder. Then she realized it was the snake. That metallic, world-filling buzzing was the signal that preceded its at- tack. In an instant it would fling itself at her—bury its white fangs in her throat. She could not move. She could not utter a sound. The slender, beautiful head rose a little higher; it seemed to be vibrating. The coils moved. It was preparing for the spring. In another moment— | A scream of horror surged from the girl. Before her staring eyes the graceful, beautiful head of the snake had suddenly vanished from its body. Only the slightly bloody stump of its neck remained, and this was instantly lost in a tangle of writh- ing coils. | Then Red Wilpin came sprinting down the path, his smoking revolver still in his hand. He was pale with anxiety. Ccomiclooks.c© nn