Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/99

 tumbled past the moon, tantalized Alden. Much would he have preferred that the sky should be darker or lighter, provided it remained the one or the other.

It was not anything he heard which gave him his first thrill of fear. He caught no sound, but it suddenly occurred to him that there was a movement in the grass a few rods out. At first he could not define its nature. It was as if some reptile, possibly a rattlesnake, was stirring at that point. The disturbance was so slight that a moment later he felt sure he had been deceived. The face of the moon cleared, and a silver flood of light bathed the grassy plain. The spot which had roused his suspicion stood out almost as at midday, when the sky is partly cloudy.

“Could I have been mistaken?” he asked himself, motionless and peering into the obscurity. “Shagbark warned me to be on my guard against everything, but I can’t make this out.”

If a serpent had been disturbed and was zig-zagging through the grass, he had nothing to fear, for it would not molest him.

The occasion was one in which Jethro might be able to give help. Alden called cautiously to him, but there was no answer. He stepped