| Show A SNAKE SfORI GASKELL I tell you boys said John Rodgers to a party of genial lighthearted light-hearted btorjtellingfriendsas they sit by their camp fire one pleasant night on the banks of the Republican Repub-lican Fork of the Arkansas River Ive had scares of different kinds and sizes No one can knock around on the frontiers in all kinds of society soci-ety for the number of years that I have without meeting with strange adventures many of them dangerous danger-ous and startling enough to satisfy the most rash and headstrong lover of excitement and change Ive been chased by it vouuued mad buffalo bull and made exiraordai ary time in running and dodging his wild deperate rushes after me Once I had bred after a short chase at one and hit him hard when he suddenly whirled round and my horse shying I Hew out of the saddle clean over the bull and lit on my head boring into the sedgy ground almost to my ears thebuffalo barely missing me as he pursued my frightened fright-ened horse Another time I was kept for hours jumping from side to side of a deep gully fully ten feet across on the open prairie without a tree in sight only escaping tho enraged en-raged animal by his having to go about fifty yards to get around the crevasse and generally arriving after 1 had made the leap bellowing and pawing up the ground in rage at my evasion yet persistently keeping it up until I began to think my time had come and only getting rid of liis attentions by falling into the gully out of his sight and keep ing hid till he had gone away Ive been in the close hug of a grizzly bear and come out badly clawed and clawed uphave been chased by wild stallions and only escaped by the speed of my horsehad to kill my horse take out his entrails aiid crawl inside to escape a prairie firo but in all these scenes rough and dangerous as they sometimes were was never half do badly frightened as Ive been at snakes I dont know how it is but I would far rather meet the whole Apache nation on the warpath war-path painted and bedizened out in their gaudy barbaric trappings trap-pings and wild for blood and hair than to interview snakes or have them Interview as I once had to 1 remember reading of the early martyrs of the Christian church I while Paganism was so powerful how they were boiled in oil or roasted on gridirons were sawn icri asunder by huge saws or thrust into the amphitheatre to fight almost al-most or entirely unarmed with wild beasts or with one another were walled up alive in dungeons and caves crucified head upwards and head downwards broken on the wheel and burnt at the stake pulled in pieces by wild horses but the most horrible and hideous of all daths to my thinking was that of the African Christian at Carthage who was put into a barrel with toads scorpions and serpents had the head put in and hooped in and then the barrel with its living freight was cast into the sea Ugh it makes my very flesh crawl to think of it It was down in Missouri not far from the Arkansas line that Bill Sykes and I were out hunting hunt-ing once We had > had moderate good luck for the country was then but sparsely settled and the houses were a goodly distance apart conse ruently most of our camps had to be inado in the woods or on the prairie prai-rie But this was no particular hardship hard-ship to us as the weather was fine and we were well used to outdoor life Health and appetite were good and we had plenty of food the game we killed forming our chief staple and for a short time we could readily stand being without the conveniences con-veniences and delicacies of the settlements We had had good hunting that day having bagged three bears and a panther and several sev-eral deer and we were somewhat sore and tired after the days sport We made our nights camp in the entrance of a low cave not far from the river bottom and expected to have a quiet and good time of itso we laid ourselves out for the best and proper enjoyment of it The cave was in the base of arpcky knoll that immediately im-mediately back rest into a high hill covered thickly with forest and underbrush un-derbrush as wild in appearance as though untrodden and Unknown to man The rock was seamed and cracked into fissures of different sizes and depths and the cave itself was really but little better than a loose throwing together of huge blocks of stone that in falling had lodged so as to make an opening underneath under-neath them and decaying vegetation vegeta-tion and the continuous wear of elements ele-ments had gradually and surely covered them overwith a thick layer of mould We had in the course of pur peregrinations seen many such caves though hitherto we had preferred pre-ferred to sleep in the open air or under the umbrageous foliage of the forest as in fine weather at the hottest hot-test season of the year it was preferable pre-ferable and far more pleasant than to be cooped up underground from the evening breezes But there were signs about the heavens of a coming storm that night and AO concluded it best to put ourselves to a little inconvenience rather than be out in the elemental war ikely to ensue and get drenched by the rain which vould be a far greater inconvenience incon-venience and discomfort to us in the end lWe quickly lit our fire and things began to look cheerful around and much more homelike and enjoyable I than before We speedily got through supper anti stretched ourselves our-selves on our blankets our pipes and in a dreamy indolent mood in drowsy conversation we passed the intervening hours till the usual time of retiring to rest Once we were awakened to a full consciousness conscious-ness of surrounding objects and passing events by wha we supposed was the sharp whirr of a rattlesnake rattle-snake but as we took a torch and searched all around wherever we thought it possible for one to lurk without seeing one or indications other than the Sharp alarum of his rattles of such an unwelcome intruder in-truder we thought we must have been mistaken and in the absence of its recurrence the incident passed from our minds We had had no difficulty with reptiles so far but we had often seen them in the rocks among decayed Jogs and vegetation md broken ground of the hillsides We were however to have an adventure ad-venture to awaken all our fears and make us forever afterwa ds cautious and how we passed our IllglltS We toy down after replenishing < ur fire so that it would burn for hours rolled ourselves in our blankets and were soon asleep at least I was I do not Tmow exactly what awoke me but the first sound I did hear when 1 was on more fully awake was the continuous and metallic whirr of a rattlesnake From the sound it could only hav been yard or so away The dying ashcovered embers of the fire still faintly illuminated the cave just enough to throw the rifts and recesses re-cesses into darker shade the points of rock dancing and quivering in the faintly flickering uncertain light and resolving them into all kinds of fantastic shapes and gruesome grue-some appearances I lay upon my back in deeper gloom and in such position that took in my range of view nearly all the cave and I saw with surprise that my companion Sykes was no longer wnerehe had lain down rolled in his blankets But wonder only existed ex-isted in a dazed uncertain sort of away a-way being almost swallowed up and lost ia the terrible fear that now assailed me I heard most distinctly the rattle of more than one snake they seemed on all sides and directions direc-tions around me and a shiver of awful overwhelming dread paralyzed para-lyzed every faculty of body whilst those of mind were acutely morbidly mor-bidly yet preternaturally active It was well that r was in a manner paralyzed for I am confident had I moved I would have been instantly bitten and the terrible shock I got when I realized the imminence of my danger chained the powers of my body until I had time to think aye and plan how to escape or I must involuntarily have sprang from where I lay Had I been before be-fore the muzzle of a grapeshot loaded cannon I do not think I would hav had the fear I had come upon me when I realized that I was surrounded in the dark almost by loathsome and deadly reptiles There is something awful in lying powerless face to face with a loathsome death As I lay there the moments seemed to be hours in duration fear robbing me of strength with mind sensitive to every danger and hope almost destroyed de-stroyed yet as the blood once more circulated freely through my frame judgment continued the inaction fear had commenced and I lay perfectly per-fectly still scarcely breathing in my intense desire to listen I could detect the slow gliding of bodies over the sandstrewa floor of the cave and by and by I felt one of the reptiles crawling over my legs Heavens above How was it all to end Could I lay there as though dead while they held carnival over methe least move would be the signal for the launching forth of poisonous fangs sure precussors to a lingering painful death But until I knew just my position I must bear it Where was my friend Sykes I remembered he had set some traps before darkhad he gone out into the night to visit them and when would he return These thoughts with myriads of others passed through my mind with lightning rapidity and in the midst of it all I could see no way out of the difficulty One of the reptiles glided over my breast and then seemingly startled at something turned and coiled itself up and I s w its head oscillating to and fro in the flickering light of tne dying fire its eyes scintillating like sparks of light or glistening diamonds sending send-ing strange thrills of cold and deadly fear through my entire frame How I bore it so calmly so quietly is a mystery to this day to me Had anyone told me such a thing was possible I would have most certainly cer-tainly set him down for a madman I soon saw what had startled the serpent I heard a footstep and I directly afterwards saw the form of my friend Sykes outlined at tho entrance en-trance of the cave Kow came the supreme moment of danger I dare not speak to warn him of his peril the very act would cost me my life Would he in safety to himself discover dis-cover it If not heaven help us we were both doomed beyond a peradventure i per-adventure But at this moment a warning rattle was given by the coiled up snake answered from two or three other quarters and I saw Sykes spring back as though he was shot while his voice rang out sharply on the still night air Good God I Jack are you there in that devils den but I dare not answer But Sykes was a man of sense aud Tesolution not easily daunted by danger heard no more of him for a minute or two when i saw aim return with an armful of brush and standing in the entrance he threw it on the smouldering fire and in a minute or two after a bright blaze of light made visible and vivid every I corner of the cave Armed with a good stout stick he then dare enter and as the reptiles were already frightened by the bright glare of light and had already commenced to make off he soon cleared the cave not however until he had killed three or four huge fellows one of which had fifteen rattles One spring and yell took me to the entrance en-trance of thecave when the reaction of danger being past my overstrained over-strained nerves gave way and for the first and only time in my life I fainted dead away not coming too until Sykes had nearly strangled me in pouring whisky down my throat We had got right into the den of the poisonous reptiles and the warmth of the fire had drawn them from their holes and 1 tell you I made tracks out as soon as I was able to move I do not want another such an experience shoot me scalp me burn me but do not let me interview snakes again |
