Roy watched the scene in a detached way, almost as though he was part of an audience of a staged drama. It was the moment of breathless suspense before the crisis. But this sense of unreality did not last long, for the silence was shattered by the crack of Teddy’s gun. Roy looked down at the spot where the snake had stopped, expecting to see it a mangled mass of blood and skin. To his surprise, he saw the snake still in that upraised, immobile position, as firm and steady as a rock. Teddy had missed! He had no opportunity to correct this mistake. The huge serpent sounded his rattles just once. Then he swiftly lowered his head to the ground, as though bowing farewell, and, like a streak of light, was gone. And where, before, the ground had been alive with the forms of writhing diamond-backs, there remained only the torn bodies of those the boys had killed. The other snakes had gone with their leader. Teddy glanced at his brother, a sheepish look on his face. “I missed him, clean!” he said, sliding the rifle back into its case on the saddle. “Roy, I would have bet anything that I drew a perfect bead in his head. I had him lined up just right when I squeezed the trigger. I can’t understand it,” and Teddy shook his head. “You missed, all right,” Roy answered, as though to himself. “He was the king snake of that whole bunch! Wasn’t he a whopper, though? Never saw such a big one! The way he stood there, with his head raised looking right into your rifle barrel, he seemed like--like--Ajax defying the lightning. You know, Teddy, I’m kind of glad you did miss.” “Well, you soft-hearted bronco-peeler!” Teddy laughed. “Glad because I didn’t kill a sidewinder! Wait till dad hears about that! And, speaking of dad, we’d better get back to him. He doesn’t know where we are, and he may worry. Let’s go!” “I only wish I hadn’t fallen,” Roy remarked in a low voice as they rode along. “I’ll bet we would have had our broncs back now.” “Aw, forget it,” his brother declared. “It wasn’t your fault. Anyway, they were a good bit ahead, and we might not have caught them, even if you hadn’t fallen. And when we did, we’d have had a fight on our hands, I’m thinking. Not that I’d mind it,” he added quickly. “But if we got punctured, mother and dad would worry like all get-out!” It hardly entered the boy’s mind that he might have been killed if he and Roy had succeeded in forcing the rustlers to the wall. “Where in thunder is that spring?” Roy asked in a petulant voice. “Baby, I’m some dry! Next time I go chasing rustlers, I’ll bring along a canteen, I’ll tell a maverick!” Teddy did not reply. He was thinking that perhaps they would not get another chance to go after the rustlers. Certainly the men ahead were moving fast. Star, General, and Flash had more stamina than any other three horses he had ever seen. This meant that, in a pinch, the thieves could ride them well out of the county before night.