St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-02-01
g elected Sfprn.
NERVE.

a
ern experience, land although hun
dreds of other men have had to look
into the muzzle of Henry or Win
chester rife in the hands of des-
Dorado under similar circumstances,
/ don't believe anyone ever had its
nerves put to anything like the strain
mine were subjected to during one OF
the seances l was a party to.
THE first time 1 had to hold up
nv hands, with the request that L
keep them up until further notice
under penalty of a bullet through
nv heart if let even one hand tall
below my head, was down in New
Mexico. 1t was just after the war,
and a party of us were on our way
to Pueblo. had $500 in gold, hard
earned government money, on my
person, with which l believed | was
going to make my everlasting fortune
BY investing it in a gold mine one of
our party had found, he said, not
manv miles from Pueblo. The
ing US to that place, and the general
impression in those days was that
the overland mail was generally
loaded with valuable matter. This
seemed to have been the opinion of
three enterprising citizens of New
Mexico about that time. as we
learned when the stage came to
sudden stop in one of the widest
spots in all that country, and the
muzzes of three rifles appeared at the
windows, with a rough and tough
looking man at the butt end OF each
rife. One of the men ordered US to
tumble out on the double-quick. We
did not trespass even a little bit on
the time of these gentlemen, who
seemed to be in hurry, but tumbled
out at the word. Then we were
ordered to stand in a line, front face
and close dress. and hold our hands
above our heads, all of which was
done with military promptness. One
of the three busting citizens was set
to guard US, and to whom the leader
of the gang remarked:
BLOW hole that you can shove a
stove-pipe through in the first man
that stirs !"
Then the other two began cutting
open the mail bags and rif1ing them.
l couldn't tell how the pouches were
panning out. for the rifing opera
ton was beyond my range of vision,
under orders as l was to preserve
rigid eyes 'front.' l guess we had
stood there five minutes, and the
strained position was beginning to
tell on me, when l saw something as
I rolled my eyes to the ground that
drove all thought of heavy and pain
I'll I.a1I ~
Moving directly toward me, and not
more than yard away, was one of
those terrors of that region-cent-
ipede. This one was a hideous look
ing creature, at least eight inches
long. He kept straight toward me
and | never moved my eyes from
him. He drew nearer and nearer,
until he was at the very tip of my
shoe I didn't dare move for l knew
the muzzle of derringer was only
rod away ready to drive a bullet
through my heart. The centipede
stopped for a second when he came
to my shoe, and then turned and
passed on by. l raised my eyes and
breathed easier. The rObber guard
didn't seem to be aware of the
existence of anything else on earth
except himself and us, and he seem
ed to have us all under his eve at
once.
~ didn't dare to turn my head, of
course, to see which way the
centipede was going, and l didn't
need to, for suddenly l felt sensa-
ton, first at my ankle, then gradual
ly passing up my leg, that made my
blood turn cold. The centipede had
crept up my shoe at the instep, and
was even then climbing my leg under
my trousers There was no mistak-
ing the prickling of the long rows of
sharp claws as the centipede worked
it's way along my flesh. 1 knew
that the least movement l made
would disturb the venomous climber
and he would instantly sink every
one of his numerous claws into my
flesh and squirt from each one its
quota of deadly poison into my
blood.
There is nothing so quick or so
sensitive to disturbance as a cent
ipede. They are harmless if their
temper isn't aroused, and the falling
of shadow on them is frequently
enough to do that. If you ever go into
a centipede country, and some morn
ing wake up and find one of those
ugly fellows crawling over your leg,
Just let him crawl. Don't breath
if you can help it. His sharp claws
will prick you unpleasantly and
probably leave two red streaks on
your flesh, which will itch and burn
for halt ar hour, but let him take his
time. If you make the slightest
movement it will jar on his nerves,
and he will squat right down, so to
speak, and force every one OF his toes
into you, full length. Then you'll
have poison enough in you to kill
horse. You can't possibly be quick
enough to throw a centipede off be-
fore he sinks his poison claws into
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