Chapter 17

He immediately sat up and looked for the girls. Sam was on her feet and sobbing while Roxie was beating something with a long stick. Steve hurried over to the girls to find a large snake hissing as Roxie wailed away at it. Steve pulled his knife as he stepped just behind the snake’s head. Then he bent down and severed it with one stroke.

“Shit! That’s a big snake!” managed Roxie as she dropped the stick and then hugged her frightened sister. “Sam and I both hate snakes.”

“I’m not very fond of them myself,” acknowledged Steve as he cleaned his knife blade by driving it into the ground and pulling it back out several times before wiping it on his pant leg. “We still need to rest, so lie back down and try to get some sleep.”

“You first,” insisted Roxie as she and Sam waited for Steve to return to his previous resting spot and lie back down. As soon as he was settled, the two sisters immediately dropped down next to him. Without saying a word, the girls seemed to silen