The Bessemer indicator., 1893-12-30
THE MYSTERY SOLVED.
TWO BARK PEEtERs TOOK ir
TO BE A BICYCLE TRACK.
Hut II Turned Out to ise Mstsriai for
an AstonishinK snake story-That the
knaks swallowed = Mule Proved to
He Untrue, However.

he Uutrue. However.
James /. 8; and James C.
Meyers, Of YS.s .ounty. Pennsyl.
vania. were doing job OF bark
peeling in that county, near the
Maryland line. One Sunday after
noon they were walking along the
Melrose road on their way to the
woods. whom they came upon track
in the road.
"Who do you s'pose can be going
through this country on bicycle ?"
said Zepp.
Somebody that must have muscle
and nerve" replied Meyers He
must have tire on his wheel like a
lumber wagon, from the width of the
track it makes"
They measured the track. says the
New York Sun. 1t was six inches
wide. It, followed the road for two
miles. and then turned of toward
the woods and ended. Then, for the
first time, it struck the two bark
peelers that the track had begun in
the road just Us suddenly us 1t had
come to an end. They thought over
the puzzle for some time, and could
come to but one conclusion.
ats spook bicyclcP" sa d Zepp,
and Meyer agreed with him.
They went on with hurried steps,
and had gone mile or more, when
suddenly an enormous blacksnake
glided out OF the woods into the road
1t had d cock pheasant in its mouth
dragging 1t along by the neck.
The snake kept tho road and trav-
eled so fast that it was out OF sigh
before Zepp and Meyers had recov-
cred from their astonIshment. Then
they saw that 1t was not bicycle
that had made the mysterious and
spooky track in the road. The wido
trail was made by the enormous
blacksnake.
1t was sometime before the two
bark peelers could make up their
minds whether to go on or return to
Melrose. They finally armed them
selves with heavy clubs and went on.
Tho great trail followed tho road for
nearly milo. when 1t turned toward
the woods again and disappeared.
Zepp and Meyers wcro now within
two miles of their camp. where they
had n gun. and they hurried on.
Within half a mile of their camp the
big snake came into the road again
like flash. This time it had Il rab-
bit in its mouth.
"Lord!' exclaimed Zcpp. "Hc's
gulpcd that big pheasant and hain't
had enough yit"
This time the snake did not follow
along tho road but crossed it, and it
made the eyes of the two bark peel
ers bulge when they saw the head of
tho snake disappear in the woods on
one side of the road some time before
its tail came out of the woods on the
other side.
They gave the snake time to get a
long distance in the woods, and then
they broke for the camp on the dou-
bic quick. They found Andy Elite,
of Cumberland, there. Andy Is n
fox, coon ard 'possum hunter. and
when he heard about the big snake
he called his dog and started out to
sec il he could not make hit as u
snake hunter, too. Zepp and Meyers
took their gun and went along.
They took the trail where the
snake crossed the road, and Andy's
dog followed it as If it had been u
fox scent. He led the men mile
into the woods and came to noisy
stand. He barked and growled and
yelped so vociferously that Andy ex-
claimed:
That's the oncommonest snake, l
reckon, that was ever treed around
hyer or you wouldn't find old Dan
cuttin' up like that. He's holed up
a dozen big rattles to wunst, Tore
now, an never made no setch fuss. Il"
The hunters drew near to the dog.
and Immediately saw that he had
good cause to make fuss Two
snakes lay stretched out on the
rocks. They were black as coal or
they could easily have been mis-
taken for chestnut saplings lying on
the ground, SO Zepp and Meyers de-
clare. Each snake seemed swollen
to an enormous size just below the
neck. Andy Flite shot both of them
through the head, and they thrashed
around so in the bushes that the dog
and the two bark peelers ran away.
The snakes finally gavo up, and
Andy cut them open. In one was Il
cock pheasant and in the other rnb-
bit The snake that had swallowed
the rabbit also had mules shoe in
its stomach. This led to the report,
when the news of the killing of tho
two snakes was carried to Melrose.
that one of the snakes had swal-
lowed mule. This was found out
later to be untrue.
George Sampson identified the
shoe as one which he had tied around
the neck of cat which he had
thrown into the mill-pond couple
of weeks before to drown. The cat
had evidently been too much for the
weight of the shoe. had escaped from
the pond and run up against the
snake, which ut once took it in, shoe
and all.
The smaller OF the two snakes
measured fourteen feet. the other
fourteen feet nine and onc-half
inches. They were larger by four
or five feet than blacksnakcs usually
found in that neighborhood.
He Mn 10 the Hi.hop sit Down.
h,, tJ, fnn1ip., tLat .