Show adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE fa fanged death HELLO H ELLO distinguished EVERYBODY adventurer graham babcock of paterson N J takes the adventurers club rostrum today and graham wins ten bucks because he take another fellows advice if hed done what that fellow told him to hed have had no story to tell us today but graham paid no attention to that fellow and the result is one of the most thrilling bloodcurdling blood curdling adventure yarns ive seen in a coons age it was in august 1913 graham was just seventeen ye years ars old lived in suffern N Y and spent his spare time hunting in the ramapo mountains in season and a nd out at the time hunting hu i was out of season so graham carried his rifle in a gun case and took along a fishing basket just in case he happened to meet up with a game warden game wardens can put you in the jug for hunting in august but theres no law against fishing for minnies at that time of year graham started out up the tracks of the erie railroad and walked as far as the ramapo crossing from there he planned to cut into the mountains but the crossing tender an old friend of his and an old timer in n that section tried to dissuade him theres a rattlesnake den just up ip the side of that gully he said and rattlers are mean at this time of f year better go in up the track a ways graham unknowingly walks into nest of snakes but graham had seen rattlers before and he afraid of them whenever hed come on them they had always wriggled out of sight as fast as they could he forgot though that a nest of rattlers in the late summer season might actually be LOOKING for trouble graham climbed up the side of the hill and walked along a ridge until he came to a place where a big boulder jutted butted out over the edge of a small cliff there a rattler in sight and he began to think he must have passed the nest the crossing tender had spoken of he saw some berry bushes a few yards away and set his gun and fishing 11 I 1 VI URZ I 1 remembered everything i I 1 had ever heard about rattlers basket down on the boulder while he climbed up to pick a few berries but graham never picked so much as a single berry the minute he ha reached for them things began to happen As he be stooped down to part the leaves of the first bush a rattler shot out from beneath it and landed almost at his feet graham leaped back As he did the shirring skir ring ruffle of another rattler sounded from a niche in the rock just over his head bead then all at once that sound was repeated from a dozen directions from the right from the left from behind him the sound swelled into a low ominous hum graham realized then that he was right in the middle of that nest of vipers he took a quick step forward and stopped dead in his tracks A big one lay right in my path he says coiled and ready to strike its whole body swelling and deflating with anger as if it were being blown up by a bellows its tail sounded its threatening war note and its head was flattened and drawn back for the kill I 1 tried to back up and right behind me near a rotted tree trunk another one reared its head and rattled and hissed talk about things flashing through your mind in a split second I 1 remembered everything I 1 had ever heard about rattlers I 1 remembered my grandfather telling that this was the worst time of year to be bitten for in late august when the rattler ratilee is about to seek his winter quarters his venom is twice as poisonous as it is at other times and I 1 remembered rem em hearing that the speed with which the venom takes effect depends on where you are bitten my uncle once told me of a woman acoman bitten in the breast who lived just 17 minutes those thoughts went through grahams mind in just the smallest fraction of a second and they stirred him into action over his head was a tree limb he leaped for it caught it and swung out from between the snakes that had him cornered he landed in an open space grabbed up a stick and began flailing the bushes to right and left 1 I made for the boulder where I 1 had left my gun and fishing basket he says still beating frantically with my stick another snake struck struck at the stick and I 1 threw it away as hard as I 1 could and tore through the bushes like a madman he heard another low pitched ominous limn hum graham reached tile the boulder where he had left his gun gua out of breath and shaking like a leaf he had hurt his knee in his mad scramble through the brush and now believing himself out of danger he sat down to look it over and then suddenly he heard another low pitched ominous buzz says he 1 I looked back over shoulder my just in time to see another big rattler leap at me how I 1 ever did it ill never know but from a sitting position without getting to my feet I 1 actually jumped three feet to one side and the snake missed me by a foot it knocked over the basket and landed coiled left right on my gun case I 1 ran to the edge of the boulder and broke a limb from a green sapling as if it were a pipestem pipe stem I 1 saw the infuriated snake make ready for another strike and I 1 knew it miss migs this time behind me was the cliff in front of me was the snake and I 1 get off the boulder without getting in range ol of its strike then I 1 saw two other rattlers edging u up to join in the he attack and although it was a terrible jump I 1 preferred preferred the cliff to death by snakebite snake bite I 1 and hesitated only an instant hoped for the best leaped into space of the top of a cedar tree broke grahams Gra harns fall he landed in a bed pine needles below it and he he luck says fairly bounced as he landed was with me he says and the only injuries I 1 suffered the terrible were scratches on my body body arms and face I 1 went home leaving my gun and basket right where they were and I 1 for go back them until after cold weather set in and the snakes were all holed in up their winter quarters copyright CoDy right wi tu service |