St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-05
from which the writhlng tongue pro-


truded.
In time. when the strain became very
great, Juan felt his brain commence to
weaken, and 1t seemed to him as if that
awful head with the poisonous teeth
and swapping jaws had always been in
front of him, and always would be.
Several times a method of escape
found Itself III his mind, but always had
to be dismissed as impracticable. He
thought of mesmeriZing the snake, and
looked into its eyes as hard as he could.
but always gave 1t up, as it seemed as if
the snake would be the one to do the
mesmerlZing.
IL seemeu IS If the sun never moved,
although to his mind he had been ages
in his awful position. He really had
been there less than half an hour, but it
was telling on him, and he felt that be-
fore the other men came to his relief he
would be insane or else have become
weak and given himself up to the snake,
which was still swapping its jaws few
inches from his face. There were few
rocks few inches from his hands, but
he dared not reach out lest the reptile
bite. Juan was becoming weaker every
moment, and was almost ready to give
up when he heard growl TO one side
of him that had most perceptlDle
effect on the snake.
Turning his head carefully he saw a
large wildcat stretched out and looking
at both man and serpent as ii uncertain
which to attack and get the meal which
was ready and waiting. The cat was
long time making up his mind. but
finally got behind the snake and caused
the reptile the greatest uneaslness.
Gradually it came nearer and nearer,
and when the snake made an extra hard
strike at Juan, jumped for its head, and
with fierce, rapid action OF ms nina
legs tore its throat out. killing 1t almost
instantly.
Juan felt better in an instant, and
reached out for a sharp stone that was
living few inches in front of him
aud that he could not reach for fear
of being bitten. He thought that he
could stand a few wounds, as long
as they were not poisonous and
certain OF producing death. at any
rate, he would die fighting, if he had TO,
which was a good deaf better than
gon g out of the world by the sting OF
rattlesnake.
The wildcat was not long in making
the attack. He jumped at Juan's throat,
which the latter shielded with his LETT
arm, and struck at the beast with the
piece of rock. The blow had its effect,
a moment so as to find a place that was
not so liable to result in injury to itself.
1t walked around several times and
then watched its chance and Jumped on
Juan'S back. lie felt the claws aud
teeth sink into his flesh and struggled
with all his strength to reach around
where he could get hold Of his antago-
MIST. He managed to reach the anlmaFs
tail and pull it around under pm. But
the claws were tearing his hesh IN
dozen places and he was bleeding
freely. He struck upward as much as
he could, and the beast was MT on tue
end of the nose. 1t was palhtuI DloW'
and for a moment the cat lost us grip
and Juan pulled IL under MN anu com
menced to beat it with the piece OF
rock.
The w ildcat's scratches were rapid
and furious and Juan struggled as he had
never struggled before. at this point IN
the ficht his efforts turned the log ana
he either end of it moved around down
hill. and at the same time the enu IhaV
had imprisoned his foot rose III the ar
and he was free. The rocks that had
stopped the logs course downhlll mad
struck in the center ana the large
piece of timber was nearly evenly PAT
anced, but still so heavy as to take
hard jar to move it.
When Juan was rid OF his snackle ne
jumped up, with the wildcat hanging 10
his side. and ran few feet to where he
had left his ak. With this weapon he
soon ended the fight.
He did no more work that day, but
after finding his oxen that had got away
as quickly as possible after the first hiss
of the snake he picked up the dead
wildcat and the snake. and returned to
camp to dress his wounds.
WILL SPARKS.