Its crashing report brought a sudden swishing from beneath the grass, and he hopped over closer and sent three more bullets into the threshing brown body.

He stood over it for a moment, his teeth showing in a savage snarl.
"You won't bite any one else, damn you!" he shouted.
The impotence of this conduct struck him immediately.

He flushed and drooped his head, a grim smile slowly wearing down his expression of panic.

Seldom did he allow his emotions to reveal themselves so plainly.

But the swiftness of the rattler's attack, the surprise when he had not been thinking of such a thing, the fact that he was far from help and that his life was in danger--all had a damaging effect upon his self-control.