At three o'clock it was even more terrible than it had been at noon.
"Ain't it EVER going to let up ?" groaned the dentist, rolling his eyes at the sky of hot blue brass.

Then, as he spoke, the stillness was abruptly stabbed through and through by a shrill sound that seemed to come from all sides at once.

It ceased; then, as McTeague took another forward step, began again with the suddenness of a blow, shriller, nearer at hand, a hideous, prolonged note that brought both man and mule to an instant halt.
"I know what THAT is," exclaimed the dentist.

His eyes searched the ground swiftly until he saw what he expected he should see--the round thick coil, the slowly waving clover-shaped head and erect whirring tail with its vibrant rattles.
For fully thirty seconds the man and snake remained looking into each other's eyes.

Then the snake uncoiled and swiftly wound from sight amidst the sagebrush.