The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-03-26

you unpleasantly and: probably: leave
two red streaks on: your flesh, which
will itch and burn for half an hour,
but let him take his time.ss 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 its full length.
Then you will have poison enough in
you to kill horse. You can't posi-
bly, be quick enough throw a centi'
pede off before he sinks his poison
CLAWS into you. I'll tell you how sud-
den a centipede is. Two New Mexico
miners once were camping together,
snd one day one of them saw cent?:
pede nearly foot long lying quietly
on the bare arm of his sleeping part
ner. Fearing that the man might
awaken before the centipede moved of
his arm, and make movement that
would prove fatal to him, the miner
took his revolver, crept up stealthlly
SO near that he could hold the weapon
within two inches of the centipede,
and fired. The bullet scraped down
.long the sleeping mans arm and
swept the renomous.; intruder away
like chaf before the wind. = But: the
bullet wasn't sudden enough. s* AL
though tho centipede WAS torn into a
hundred pieces, it had time to sink
its claws into its victims arm before
the bullet swept it of, and the well
meaning miner had only precipitated
his partners fate. The centipede is as
mitch like lightning as that.
swell, there 1 stood, doubly held
up as it were. If moved hand the
watching desperate would fill me with
lead. If I moved leg the centipede
would fill me with poison. Slowly the
terrible creature crept up my leg,
stopping now and then as if pondering
over his next movement, and then
climbing on again, all the time leaving
! his itching, burning track along my
leg-something in itself almost intoll
erable. I did not know how soon the
irnscible, creeping terror would take
urabrase at something in his course
ard vent his spite at it by socking his
long rows of stingers into my flesh
and then the thought that the robbers
would soon be through with their work
at the stage and begin their search for
our personal belongings came with
added terrors. In going through my
clothes they would of course disturb
lie centipede, and that meant only one
ching. All 7 could see in the outlook
sor me was certain death, whicheve.l
way I turned it over. Yet I kept OF
hoping that the living internal MAJ
chine in my trousers leg might take ii
into his head to retrace his steps and
come down to the ground again before
anything happened to disturb it. The
centipede showed no disposition OF
51at kind, but suddenly changed his
base by moving from my leg to my
trousers below the hip. = One whack
from my fist would have smashed the
eentipede, with his back against my
hip bone, and that would have ended
Tim. And it would have ended me at
the same time, for there isn't any
doubt but that the man with the gun
would have obeyed orders. So I was
just about to tell him, quietly and
without waste of words, the unpleas-
s.nt situation I was in, and beg him to
let me give the centipede its quietus
While I had the chance, when the
venomous thing moved back to my leg
again and resumed its march.
cit crept along, turning when /
reached my waist, and moving across
nv back toward the other side. The
nervous tension was terrible-a deadly
creature liable ct any moment to bury
it's venomous claws in my flesh, ths
nuzzle of 4 pistol warning me that in
slant death awaited my slightest move.
The centipede, although most deliD-
crate in its movements, reached my
other hip by and by, and, to my Joy,
started down that leg. Slowly he let
himself down, and so intense was my
suspense, in the hope that he Was on
his way out by the route, that I did
not feel the burning track that he had
now put pretty much all around me.
He took his time, and at last got dowr
to my knee. There he stopped.
"My heart seemed throbbing in my
very throat and almost sutfocated me.
A moment later it seemed to quit beat
ing altogether, and it was only by the
most strenuous assertion Of my will
that + saved myself from falling limp
to the ground. The centipede had
turned and was going up my leg again |!
I was almost on the point of dropping
my hands that bullet might relieve
me from the misery of that frightful
situation. when the capricious cent?
pede turned and started down again.
moving with more celebrity than be had
used since he began that appalling
trip. I don't know what started him,
but be kept up his run all the rest OF
the way down my leg, and presently
dropped to the ground and scurried
away. 7 just shut my eyes, gave one