The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-03-23
Terrible Ordeal.

Instances are not uncommon of men who
have displayed remarkable courage and fear.
lessness, and have faced even death itself.
until all danger was past, and then have
broken down utterly, and been as cowardly
as children ever after. A writer for the New
York Sun gives thrilling incident of this
kind, which happened in India. On one of
his many trips up the Little Rangoon river,
he camped one night with party of British
officers who were out on hunt. The leader
of the party, and the best shot and bravest
man in it, was Major Curtis, man about
forty years of age.
He had killed more wild animals than any
other white man in the province. Armed
only with a revolver, he had entered the bun
galow where murderer was concealed, and
taken him away from crowd Of his friends.
and delivered him up to justice.
he had swan the river amid the alligators.
and he would stand for the rush of a tiger or
the spring of panther with laugh on his
lips. They said the major did not know what
fear was. He, perhaps, thought so himself.
The camp was on the bank of the river,
and only temporary one, and no tents or
covers had been erected. We sat around the
fires until late hour, aud when we rolled
ourselves up to sleep the Major and | were
only about four feet apart, with nothing be-
tween us. The camp grew silent at once, and
everybody was soon sound asleep.
was just doing off when thought | de.
teeted the crawl of snake near me, but after
listening closely for a minute, concluded It
was lizard or an insect. The air, the
earth, the forests, the waters of India are full
of animal life by day and by night
camp no sooner grows quiet that wild
rats and mice, lizards, great beetles and three
or four kinds of squirrels begin to prospect
around, while night birds circle about, and
the of, the jackal, hyena and other animals
draw near. Snakes are always to be feared,
but if one started up at every suspicious sound
he would never get a. hours sleep.
Daylight was just coming when l opened
my eyes. was on my left side, turned to-
ward the Major, and noticed that he was on
his back. Close beside me was revolver,
which had slipped out of his holsters the
night before that l might have it handy in
case of need.
Not another soul in camp was yet awake so
far as knew, and lay listening to the noises
in the surrounding forest while daylight con
tinued to grow stronger. | was about to
arise, when | suddenly saw the head of a
serpent lift itself above the Majors breast and
wave to and fro.
| shut my eyes for a few seconds and then
opened them to see the same sight again.
even tried it again and again, fearful that
was doing, and not wishingto believe whatI
plainly saw.
II certainly was the head of a venomous
serpent, a species closely resembling the
American black snake, ahd as deadly as any
serpent in India. 1t waved its head and
darted its tongue for moment, and then set
tied back into a coil.
As soon as his head went down | felt for
my revolver and drew back the hammer
The click, click, alarmed the snake, as knew
it would, but by the time he had elevated his
head again | had my arm out stretched and
tue Hlasait VI nay EtNolfeF WltHln Two IeeL OF
him.
1t was a snap shot aud had to be made on
the instant, and it was by pure good luck that
sent bullet through his ugly head He
was writhing and Topping about as sprang
up. and was dead as bent over the Major.
The snake had crept out of the bushes and
upon the Majors breast early in the night.
Ii was not more than midnight when he
awoke and found the serpent eoiled up, and
he knew that any movement on his part would
result in certain death. For three hours and
half he rested on the broad of his back,
never moving a muscle, with his eyes wide
open, and that serpent head part of the time
waving to and fro within six inches of his
head
When | bent over him he was helpless
When we got him off the ground he sank
down again and began to weep, and it was
fully two hours before he would talk to us.
The esnlt of his experience was that he be-
came perfect physical coward, starting at
the slightest noise, and was ready to run from
l.