"
"Huh!" snapped Zeke. "He didn't get a chance to coil himself. They are
just like a hair-spring. They have to get a little purchase before they
can do anything, then they do a good deal too, if they try real hard. I
don't like them, but I never do what a good many guides out here do."
"What's that?" asked Grant.
"Why, they're so afraid of rattlesnake bites that they keep loaded up with
whisky all the time. That's the best antidote for the snake bite and these
fellows must have been bitten about three times a day, most of them."
Zeke said no more and in a brief time all three were moving steadily
across the table-land.
Late in the afternoon Zeke stopped and pointed to a place far in the
distance, "Yonder is right near Thorn's Gulch," he explained. "We ought to
get there in about three hours."
"Three hours!" exclaimed George. "Why how far is it from here?"
"About eleven miles."
It was almost impossible for either of the boys to believe that the spot
to which Zeke had pointed was so far distant. The air was so clear that
the place appeared to be much nearer than it really was and if they had
been asked each boy would have stated his opinion that the intervening
distance could be covered within an hour.
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