The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-18

no doubt. but it was with the love that
such men have for the dog they will thrash,
the horse they viii spur to broken back.
tered his head. He informed her one day
| of his decision and of the date of their
sailing, and, handing her handsome
| check, told her to purchase all things
| necessary to her, and to let him know If
she needed more; and she, loving him
| with dog-like devotion that was not good
| for him, opened her big eyes . little
| wider. but said nothing. She thought
| much about the coming change to herself,
| and, when nobody was by. she would cry
softly; then, hearing his footsteps, would
| hastily wipe away the traces Of her tears
| and go down to meet him with smile.
Now, her timidity and nervousness,
which at home had been butt for mere
| chaff, became, under the new circum-
| stances of their life, q serious annoyance
| to the man. A woman who seemed I'M
able to repress scream whenever she
turned and saw in the gloom . pair OF
piercing eyes looking ont at her from
horse with fear at the sound Of wild
beasts roar a mile off, and who would
turn white and limp with horror at the
mere sight OF snake, was not COM
panionable person to live with in the
neighborhood of Indian jungles.
and could not understand it. To him It
was pure affectation. He had muddled
idea. common to men of his stamp, that
women assume nervousness because they
think it pretty and becoming to them.
and that if one could only convince them
of the folly of it they might be induced to
lay it aside, in the same way they lay
aside mincing steps and simpering voices.
A man who prided himself, as he did, upon
his knowledge of horses, might, one would
think, have grasped a truer notion Of the
nature OF nervousness, which Is q mere
matter of temperament. But the man was
in many respects fool.
"The thing that appeared most absurd
to him was her horror of snakes. He was
unblessed-or uncursed, whichever you
may prefer-with Imagination Of any kind.
There was no special enmitY between him
and the seed of the serpent. A creature
that crawled upon its belly was no more
terrible to him than creature that walked
upon its legs; indeed. less so, for he knew.
as rule, there was less danger to be ap-
pretended from them. A reptile is only
too eager at times to escape from man.
Unless attacked or frightened it will
make no onset Most people are content
to acquire their knowledge of this fact in
natural ne u history from the ;. experience ;
self. His servant. an old sergeant of
dragons, has told me that he has seen
him stop with his face SIX inches from the
head of a hooded cobra and stand watch
ing it through his eyeglass as it crawled
away from him. knowing that one touch
OF its fangs would mean death from which
there could be no possible escape. That any
reasoning being should be inspired with
terror-sickening, deadly terror-by such
pitifully harmless things seemed to him
absurd, if not impossible; and he deter
mined to try and cure her of her tear of
them
Zone evening, riding home through a
part Of the jungle not far from his bun
galow, he heard a soft low hiss close to
his ear. and, looking up, saw a python
swing itself from the branch of a tree and
make off through the long grass. He had
been out antelope shooting and his loaded
rifle hung by his stirrup. Springing from
the frightened horse. he was just in time
to get shot at the creature before it dis
appeared. He had hardly expected, undr
the circumstances, to even hit it. By
chance the bullet struck 1t at the junction
of the vertebr9 with the head and killed
it instantly. 1t was we'll marked speci-
men, and. except for the small wound the
bullet had made, quite uninjured. He
picked it up and hung it across the saddle,
intending to take it home and preserve it.
Riding along, glancing down every now
and again at the huge. hideous thing
swaying and writhing in front Of him al
most as if still alive, brilliant idea oc.
CURED to him. He would use this dead
reptile to cure his wife of her fear of living
ones. He would fix matters so that she
would see it and think it was alive, and
be terrified by it; then he would show her
that she had been frightened by q mere
dead thing, and she would feel ashamed
OF herself, and be healed of her folly. It
was the sort Of idea that would occur to
fool.
"When we reached home he took the
dead snake into his smoking room. then.
locking the door, the idiot set out his pre-.
scription. He arranged the monster in q
very natural and lifelike position. It ap-
peared to be crawling from the open win
dow across the floor, and any one coming
avoid treading on it. It was very cleverly
done.
THAT finished, he picked out book
from the shelves and opened it, and laid it
face downward upon the couch. When he
had completed all things to his satisfac-
ton he unlocked the door and came out
very pleased with himself.
"After dinner he lit cigar and sat
smoking 1t awhile in silence.
care you feeling tiredr he said to her
at length. with a smile.
"She laughed, and. calling him a law
old thing, asked what it was he wanted.
".Oniy my novel that was reading: I
will find it open on the COUCH
''She sprang up and ran lightly to tho
door.
"As she paused there for moment to
look back at him and ask the name of the
book. he thought how pretty and how
sweet she was; and for the first time q
faint glimmer of the true nature of the
thing he was doing forced itself into his
brain.
"'Never mind he said, half rising.
'I'll-;' then, enamOred of the brilliancy Of
his plan, checked himself. and she was
gone.
HE heard her footsteps passing along
the matted passage, and smiled to himself.
He thought the affair was going to be
rather amusing. One finds it difficult to
pity him. even now, when one thinks of it.
1.-The smoking room door opened and
closed, and he still sat gazing dreamily at
the ash of his cigar, and smiling.
lone moment, perhaps two passed, but
the time seemed much longer. The man
blew the grey cloud from before his ewes
and waited. Then he heard what he had
been expecting to hear-a piercing shrek.
Then another, which, expecting to hear
the distant door clang to and her footsteps
flying back along the passage, puzzled him.
so that the smile died away from hi. Inns
"Then another, and another, and an.
other, shrek after shrek.
The native servant. gliding noiselesslv
about the room, laid down the thing that
was in Rer hand and moved instinctively