“Bully for you, Ad!” he cried, as he flung himself down by the edge of the rattlesnake pit, to lower the loop of his lariat; “trust you to think up some smart trick, while dummies like me can only remember that they own a rope. Hi! Billie, can you kick your legs into that loop, and let me draw it up under your arms?” “Sure I can, Donald; just try me,” came from below; and then ensued a vigorous shifting of the dangling lower extremities of the imperiled boy, until finally the expert user of the rope above managed to lasso them both; after which it was a simple thing to draw the loop to where he wanted. Then the two above proceeded to pull Billie up. He scrambled over the edge with a red face, and a broad grin on the same that was just the opposite to that look of terror they had so lately seen there. But all the same they were delighted to get him back unharmed; and both boys squeezed his hand in a way that told Billie how tremendously they had been aroused by his sudden peril. “That was a silly slip of mine, sure it was,” he admitted immediately; for Billie was always ready to own up to making blunders, which was one reason they found it so hard to condemn him; “and let’s get away from this place as quick as we can, boys. Huh! no Gila Monster for me after this, I reckon. I’ve had as close a call to being stung as I ever want to get. Gimme a chance to rest up a bit, and then I’ll be ready to hike out of this blessed region, where there’s more snakes to the square foot than anywhere on earth, seems like.” Less than half an hour later the Broncho Rider Boys were returning to the copper mine by the same tortuous route which they had taken to reach the lofty place where the view had been worth all the trouble the journey had cost them. Billie was unusually quiet on the return trip. Truth to tell he was feeling as tired as though he had done the greatest day’s work of his life; for the strain on body and mind, while he hung there above those hissing and rattling snakes, had been simply terrific. He knew that he would feel it for several days; but his nature was such that past troubles sat very lightly on his mind; and he would soon be joking about his strange experience. It was pretty certain however, that Billie had had his lesson; and after that should he have occasion to come within a certain distance of any sort of viper the fat boy was pretty apt to make sure of his footing; one experience of that kind ought to be quite enough. CHAPTER III. ON THE TRAIL TO THE ZUNI VILLAGE. “Well, here we are on the road to the Zuni village, and with pretty near a whole day’s journey to the good behind us!” Broncho Billie said this as he rode close behind his two chums. Several days had passed since that thrilling adventure with the rattlesnakes of the rocky den; and the boys had made ample preparations for their trip.