Cañon City record., 1898-02-03

wild beast with the fsrocious and in
stinciive antipathy to ratural enemy
blazing from its eyes. In one light
bound she was on the floor in Q COM
pressed, defensive attitude, With all
four feet close together, near. but not
too near, the unknown but clearly hos
tile intruder; and to my surprise the
snake turned and made of toward the
window. Stof1es trotted lightly after.
obviously interested in it's method of
Iocomotion- Then she made long
arm and playfully dropped paw upon
its tail. The snake wriggled free in a
moment, and coiling it's whole length,
new antagonist
The audacity of the cat astonished
me from the first. have no reason to
believe she had ever seen a snake be
fore, yet by sort Of instinct she seemed
10 know exactly what she was doing.
As the dryad raised its head, with gilt
tering eyes and forked tongue. Stoffies
crouched with both front paws in the
air, sparring as had seen her do some
times with a large moth The first
round passed SO swiftly that mortal eye
could hardly see with distinctness what
happened. The snake made dart, and
the cat, all claws, two rapid blows Mt its
advancing head. The first missed, but
the second i could see came home, as
the brute, shaking its neck and head,
withdrew further into the rug. But
Stoffles crept after il, with an air Of at
tractive carelessness which was instant
IL rewarded. A full two feet of the
dryad's body Strengthened like black
arrow, and seemed to strike right into
The furry side of its antagonist
seemed. say, to slow7going human
eyes; but the latter shrank, literally
fell back, collapsing with such sudden
ness that she seemed to have turned
herself inside out, and become the mere
skin of cat. As the serpent recovered
itself. she pounced on ii like lightning,
driving at least half dozen claws well
home, and then, apparently realizing
that she had not n good enough hold,
sprang lightly into the air from of the
body alighting about a yard of. There
followed minute of sparring in the
air: the snake seemingly half afraid 10
strike. the cat waiting on its every
movement
Now the poisonous snake when pro-
voked is an irritable animal. and the
next attack of the dryad maddened by
the scraschings of puss and lis own un-
successful exertions. was so furious,
and so close TO myself. that shnddered
for the result could not have left my
position on the sofa without almost
treading upon Sfoffies, whose bristlinR
back was not yard from my feet At
f.. al h.4 hi Il -ad
one second coiled close as a black silk
cable. sprang out the next as straight
and sharp as the pision-rod of an en-
gine-this lump of feline vanity and
conceit is done for. and-I could not
help thinking-it will probably be my
turn next, Little did appreciate the
resources of Stoffies. who. without a
change in her vigilant pose, without a
wink cf her fierce green eyes, sprang
backward and upward on to the top Of
me. and there confronted the enemy
calmly as ever. sitting, il you please,
upon my feet.
Trembling all over with fright, l
could not but observe that she was
trembling too-with rage. The last
act rapidly approached, and no more
strategic catastrophe was ever seen.
For a snake as everybody knows, natur-
ally rears its head when fighting. In
that position, though one may hit II
with stick. 1t is extremely difiicult,
as this battle had shown. TO get hold Of.
Now. as the drysd, curled to capital s.
quivering and hissing advanced for the
last time to the charge, IL was bound
to strike across the edge Of the sofa on
4. ts.t. u tux n. - .
which vanished with a juggling celebrity
that would have dislocated the collar
bone of any other animal in creation.
From such an eNertion The snake re-
covered itself with an obvious effort,
quick beyond question, but not nearly
quick enough. Before / could well see
that IL had missed its aim. Stoifies had
launched out like spring released, and,
burying eight or ten claws in the back
of its enemy's head. pinned it down
against the stiff cushion of the sofa
The tail of the agonized reptile flung
wildly in the air and tapped on the
arched back of the imperiurbable
tigrcss. The whiskered muzxle of
Stofiies dropped quietly. and her teeth
met once. twice. thrice. like the needle
and hook of a sewing-machine. in the
neck of the blue dryad; and when. aft
er much deliberntion, she let IL go. the
beast fell into limp tanrle on the floor
From tn. gland of the beast, as
afterward learned, they extracted
enough poison TO be the death OF 81
full-growu human beings. Tightly
clasped between Its minute teeth was
found u few long halrs, late the proper
ty of stoi,ies.--From Animal Episodes
and Studies In Sensation"