Do you understand?"
"Yes," mumbled the boy. "But I won't dream. I'm not nervous
now. It's only when I can't get enough cigs that I'm nervous."
"You should have seen him this afternoon," Tom continued, turning
to his chum. "The lad and I took a walk. At every other step
he kept imagining that he heard rattlesnakes rattling."
"And I did, too," contended Alf stoutly. "You know I did. You
heard 'em yourself, Mr. Reade."
"I didn't hear a single rattler," Tom replied soberly.
"Let the tired little fellow go to bed in peace," urged Harry.
"All right," Tom agreed.
Alf went to the head of the cot, to turn the blanket down from
the head.
Click-ick-ick-ick! came the warning sound.
With a yell of terror Alf Drew bounded back.
"There's another rattler," he screamed. "It's under that blanket."
"It's all your nerves," Tom retorted. "There isn't a rattler
within miles of here."
"Didn't you hear a rattle, Mr. Reade?" wailed the cigarette fiend.
"No; I didn't.
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