A small party of redskins were squatting outside the inn, and seeing that the two white men were ready to accompany them, they led the way to a hilly and well-wooded spot, just on the eastern shore of the lake. Weld noticed that the only arms carried by them were a knife and a long, slender stick, and from all he had heard of the terrible rattlesnake, this appeared a poor equipment indeed wherewith to kill reptiles which might be any length up to eight or even ten feet. Being prepared for a very great deal of wariness and of elaborate preliminary on the part of the Indians, he was, of course, _not_ prepared for the entire absence of such preliminary. One of the hunters who walked beside him stooped unconcernedly, picked up a strip of something, gave it a shake, and put it in his game-bag. "_He_ always seems to find the first one," remarked the innkeeper. "The first _what_?" queried Weld. "And what on earth is this awful stench?" "Rattlesnake," chuckled the Yankee. "See'd him pick it up, didn't ye? Come on; here's a chance for _you_, now.--Bah! What in the 'nation did ye want to do _that_ for?" For, without any hesitation, Weld had pulled out his revolver and sent two bullets into the body of a snake which, coiled up like a wire spring, had placed itself across a narrow path, and was rearing its head in an uncomfortably suggestive manner. "What did you expect me to do?" asked Weld with some impatience. "Why, _this_.--Stand clear!" But the Yankee was too "cocksure," as the boys say; and was only too glad to spring back again to the side of his guest. What he had _tried_ to do was to seize another snake by the tail and "snap" it, as a carter cracks a whip; but the creature's mouth and poison-fangs happened to be very much in the way just then, and the innkeeper left the task to the more expert Ojibewas. Now that he knew what to expect, Weld retired to a safe distance and began to note all that took place. The overpowering smell of which he had complained arose from the snakes themselves. The rats, rabbits, squirrels, etc., on which they feed begin to putrefy as soon as they are swallowed, owing to the action of the poison, and one snake is often enough to make a whole neighbourhood intolerable.