The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-15
THE LITTLE PROFESSOR
AN INCIDENT OF A PROSPECTING
TRIP IN ARIZONA.
1t Furnished Support to the Theory
that RattIesnakes Travel in Pairs
Two Exhibitions of Nerve.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
I'VE had a good deal of fun with the lit
tie professor on our prospecting trip to
Malave rsa canyon" said Estes Murfield,
a mining man, formerly of Arizona. "A
prospector had come into Tombstone from
that section with such a show of gold and
silver specimens that the Shurtleff Mining
Development Company asked me to make
up party to go out and explore the can
yen thoroughly and report whether it
would be worth while to buy the mans
claims and begin operations there. Our
party, when we got together. was made
up of five besides myself-a cook, a packer,
two miners and the professor. We had to
pack our tools, blankets and provisions
on the backs of burros, and when 1 saw
the outfit that Professor Won Hartmann
was preparing to take along 1 groaned in
spirit and rose up to protest. There was
enough in the way of retorts, crucibles and
blow pipes to set three ordinary mine camp
assayers up in business, and, as if this We're
not enough he had books for pressing
plants and flowers and two jars of alcohol
for preserving bugs and reptiles.
It'll take a string of burros reaching
from here to Malaversa to carry all that
truck told the companys agent. But
the agent jollied me, and said he was sure
/ could find some way to take the stuff
along; that the professor was a mighty
knowing man about minerals and analyses,
and the company wanted the specimens
tested on the spot, SO that fair averages
could be obtained. 1 gave in at last, hired
extra burros and we made our start. 1t
was six days Journey over the toughest
kind of mountain country, to Malaversa,
and on the first night out we came near
shipWreck through Pete. the cook, getting
hold of one of the professors alcohol jars
and starting in for a royal drunk with
the other boys standing ready to join him.
got II away from him in time and the
professor and L passed the rest of the night
on guard over the stuff, turn and turn
ABOUT with a shotgun across our knees.
In the morAing L set the boys to hunting,
and in an hour there We're centipedes and
spiders and scorpions enough in the alcohol
Jars to destroy the taste for the liquor,
even in Pete. But it ranked in the cooks
mind that neat spirits should be ruined in
this way, and he laid it up against the
professor until the time when he thought
he saw his chance to get even with him.
THE PROFESSOR HAD SAND.
This chance came about two weeks after
our arrival in Malaversa, on the day We
moved camp from the lower to the upper
canyon. The professor by this time had
got to be fairly popular with the boys. He
was a round-faced, German-looking little
man, who was busy in every hour of day
light, Analysing. botanizng, collecting ami
NAL and mineral specimens and looking for
Indian antiquities. In the evening he
would talk, if we urged him, in a way
mighty interesting to us, for miners, you
know, never miss a chance to inform them
selves in scientific matters connected with
their calling. AS for his sand we had
nad no chance to test it; but for a tender
n he ha ctr hoy
SHIPS Well, never Sinking or grumbling
AT the close of this day, as we sat at sup
per around the cloth spread on the ground,
IN the open air, Pete, who was serving us,
stopped beside the professor under pretense
OF taking up a dish to be retilled. a min
ute later he pitched yell so loud and sud
den that 1t made me spill the coffee | was
just lifting to my lips.
Good Gawd, professor, don't moven he
yer elbow
Most, of us had thought of Indians when
the cook made his cutlery, but the thing
was bad enough, for one of the party, at
least, as it was. By the professors side,
so near him that by. dropping his arm he
would have touched it, a large rattlesnake
lay .coiled, its head resting upon the coils
IN the attitude of waiting. The thing was
SO sudden and terrible that we all sat mo
tionless except the man next the profess
Sor, on the other side of the snake who
edged away until he was beyond reach of
any possible stroke, and then jumped and
run.
- :" Keep perfectly still. He won't strike if
you don t move. Who can s trust his aim
won't do. The bullet might glance in the
ground and hit any of US That's so. And
If the, snake isn't killed dead first pop,
by one man or another.
The professor, the coolest man of the
lot, was looking down at the snake care
fully through his spectacles. Still keeping
his eyes on the reptile, he reached his hand
down to his tin cup of coffee, within a foot
of the snakes jaws. raised it to his lips
Then 3 w on
astOunded at this performance, he tilted
his cup above the snake, splitting little
Don't let this incident disturb your
supper, gentlemen he said, politely. The
reptile was dead an hour ago
Pete, who had been holding in his mer-
riment with difficulty ever since he cried
snake lost his chance to laugh The rest
of us saw the joke and where it had land
ed, and for the rest of the evening the
cook was one of the best laughed-at men
that ever served about a grub pile. He
rolled himself up in his blanket to go off
to SLEEP. on the, ground in the open air;
Even this man did not close his eyes until
he had given the cook parting reminder:
" Say, Pete, you'd better sling that snake
clear of the camp Rattlers are apt to
travel in pairs, you know, and if this ones
mate comes round in the night looking for
him some of us may run up against a live
SAVED BY THE PROFESSOR
"Pete's answer was a profuse one, but,
1
snakes body off into the brush. Then he
tumbed into his blankets, and the camp
still. 1t was a yell from him that
some time toward morning brought all of
us to our feet, every man grabbing his
gun and looking around for danger 1t
was a scary sight that our eyes rested on
when we found out the trouble. In the
bright moonlight, the cook, clad only in
shirt and drawers, was standing still as a
craven image, with his blankets fallen
about his feet. Round his neck was coiled
something that twisted and moVed-sOme-
thing gray, and round, and long, and thick
and we saw that the thing that swung
beyond his shoulder and again curVing
back directly in front of the mans white
face, was the heavy, triangular head of an
enormous rattlesnake, uncertain whether
to stay where it was or glide off and fall
to the ground.
Keep still, Pete. Don't move for your
life was all we could say to him, and
this was unnecessary, for the man, after
tear. The danger was deadly and imml-
nent, for the snake, startled at the sight
of the persons standing around, was be-
coming active and restless tightening its
toward one or the other of us. The man
agony was terrible; we could almost feel
his shuddering where we stood, yet there
seemed nothing that We could do for his
rescue. Any, move of ours that should an
ger the snake would be sure to result in
the reptiles setting his fangs into Pete,
the one living object within its reach.
Then, as the snake extended it's head
toward me, reaching sidewise from Pete,s
shoulder, some one on the opposite side
stepped quickly to the trembling man,
something moved above his shoulder quick
er than my eye could follow, and the rep