He fired into the chaparral to express his pugnacious disgust and scared out a huge tarantula, which alighted on Skinny's chaps, crawling rapidly toward the unconscious man's neck.

Hopalong's face hardened and he slowly covered the insect and fired, driving it into the sand, torn and lifeless.

The bullet touched the leathern garment and Skinny remonstrated, knowing that Hopalong was in no condition for fancy shooting.
"Huh!" exclaimed Hopalong.

"That was a tarantula what I plugged.

He was headin' for yore neck," he explained, watching the chaparral with apprehension.
"Go 'way, was it?
Bully for yu!" exclaimed Skinny, tarantulas being placed at par with rattlesnakes, and he considered that he had been saved from a horrible death.