Ned drew the first watch and Nancy the second. “I’ll wake you up in an hour,” he promised as Nancy crawled under her blanket between Bess and George. He bent over and kissed her.
“Thanks,” Nancy said sleepily. “And Ned?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Thanks for being there this afternoon. It feels good to be alive.” She smiled. “You know, if we get out of this in one piece, I swear I’ll never take another vacation the rest of my life. Detective work is a lot safer!”
Ned laughed and gave her another quick kiss.
In an hour, he awakened her and she took her turn beside the fire. At the end of her hour, she woke Mike, who had the third watch, before going back to sleep. But her dreams were full of gigantic boulders that roared down on her.
Nancy woke at dawn, curled up into a tight ball, cold and stiff. The campfire was out and Ralph, who had the last watch, was drowsing beside it.
No wonder I’m cold, Nancy thought. My blanket slipped down. She tugged on the blanket, but the end of it seemed to be caught on something. A rock? She raised her head to look—and froze.
A huge rattlesnake lay coiled on the blanket. At Nancy’s movement, its head came up, staring at Nancy with beady amber eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
The rattler’s tail was buzzing like a swarm of angry bees. What could Nancy do? Even though her feet weren’t trapped under it, if she moved a muscle—or if George or Bess turned over—the snake was bound to strike.
“Ned,” Nancy whispered urgently. “Ned, wake up!”
Ned stirred sleepily on the other side of the fire. “What?” he mumbled.
“Ned,” she said again, in a low voice. “There’s a huge snake on the foot of my blanket.”
“A snake?” Ned exclaimed, throwing off his blanket. “Stay put, Nancy. Don’t move!”
“Don’t you move too fast, either,” she whispered.
“What’s going on?” Ralph sat up beside the cold fire, rubbing his eyes. “Is it Max? Where is he?”
“No, it’s a snake,” Ned replied softly, pulling on his shoes and signaling for Ralph to stay still.
The snake’s head began to weave back and forth and its tongue flicked nervously. Beside Nancy, George mumbled something in her sleep. Oh, please, George, Nancy thought, don’t turn over! Aloud, she said, “Hurry, Ned! I think it’s getting ready to strike!” The buzz of the rattles grew louder.
Noiselessly, Ned circled around behind the snake. He bent down, picked up a large flat rock, and raised it high above his head. Just as the snake coiled itself to strike, Ned brought the rock down hard on its head. For a moment the snake twisted and writhed, and then it lay still.
“Oh, Ned,” Nancy said.
“What’s going on?” George asked, sitting up. “Who’s throwing rocks?”
Bess stirred under the blanket and mumbled something.
George stared unbelievingly at the snake that Ned had stretched out across the foot of the blanket. “Nancy, it’s a monster! It’s big enough to have eaten both of us for breakfast—in one gulp!”
Bess burrowed deeper into the blanket. “A monster?” she quavered. “Not another bear!”
Nancy laughed and yanked the blanket off Bess’s head. “No, it’s not another bear,” she said teasingly, pulling her friend to a sitting position. “It’s only a snake. Wake up and see.”
“A snake!” Bess covered up her eyes. “I don’t want to see!” After a minute she peeked between her ringers. “Yikes!” she screeched. “It is a snake!”
“Must be about five feet long,” Ned said, hoisting the snake up on a stout stick. “And I count seven rattles and a button.” He shook his head. “It’s a good thing you woke up when you did, Nancy. This snake is packing a lot of venom. It could have killed you, or made you plenty sick.”
“It’s a good thing you were here to kill it, Ned,” George pointed out.
“George is right,” Nancy said. She looked up at Ned. “You know, that’s twice in two days,” she said soberly.
“Twice?” Ned asked.
“Last night you pulled me out of the path of the rock. This morning you killed the snake. That’s twice in two days that you’ve saved my life.”