The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-02-09


With a smile she always murmurs;
Jack, will you Please button this -
Puck.
A LUCKY BULLET.
"This silver bullet three times has
saved my life, and it had history
when it came into my possession. Do
you wonGer that / wear it as a tails
mani" said Senior Don Faustino 0rte-
ga of Sinaloa, Mexico, talking with
two friends in the reading room of an
uptown hotel. He speaks excellent
English, and as he said this he held
up to view the battered silver ball
which he carries always strung by a
gold wire to his watch guard
''It weighs just an ounce,n the Senor
Don continued. at was given me by
my grandfather, who told me the story
of it when he put it into my hands on
his dying bed. He was clear of mind,
and l could not doubt a word of his
story, strange as it may sound to you.
st was more than fifty years ago. my
grandfather said, that a monster wolf
appeared at my ranch on the San
Ysidro and destroyed many sheep and
calves and colts. Ny herders chased
the creature with lassos and fired at it
to no purpose; it was so fierce that it
would not retreat before one man. My
major domo sent word of these things
10 me, and l went to the ranch. Three
different times / fired at that wolf, feel
ing sure every time that I must have
hit the creature, but it trotted away
with no sign of hurt. When after my
| third trial / found the fiattened bullet
at the place where the wolf had been
when 1 fired, gave up trying to kill
the beast with powder and lead, and l
rode 100 miles to consult with man
who was learned in such matters. He
heard my story.
"'Make bullet from the first silver
you find,' he said. Scratch upon it a
Christian cross and try the wolf with
that. Ifyour aim be true, the bullet
will not fall fat like the others.
'sThe rest of the story l will tell in
my own words. My grandfather made
the wise man a present and started
back for the ranch. Crossing the chan
mel of the San Ysidro, at that season of
the year nearly dry, his horse stumbled,
and where his hoof had disturbed the
sand and pebbles there lay exposed
nugget of pure silver, such as often is
found in the bed of this stream, wash
ed down from the mountains. Dis
mounting, my grandfather picked up
the nugget, and after his arrival at the
ranch, hammered it into the bullet you
see. The next night he watched for
the wolf, which came with the rising
moon, and he killed the creature with
this silver bullet. His focks and herds
were troubled no more by any wolf,
and he kept the bullet until the last
day of his life.
"'Keep it, my dear grandson were
his last words to me concerning the
bullet. 'It has been lucky for me, and
it may succor yoI in some bad time
"For six years carried the silver
bullet in my pocket before the chance
came to demonstrate that it was
lucky piece for me. The house at my
hacienda, like Mexican houses in gen.
eral, is of one story, 50 that all its
rooms are on the ground hoor. Ny
sleeping room opened upon long,
narrow hallway with door opening
upon the courtyard. / had occasion
one morning to 60 into the further
end of this hallway to get some husi-
ness papers that kept there on shelf
A snake must have crawled into the
hallway the day before when the outer
door was open. l passed where il lay
without seeing or aroasing it, for the
first that l knew of its presence was
the loud bazzing of its rattle behind
me as / rummaged among my papers
l turned to see q six-foot rattlesnake
coiled between me and both the doors.
1t was thoroughly angry and was ad-
vancing upon me after the fashion of
rattlesnake that means to attack
Iunging forward with a third of its
length and then bringi ng its coils up
the same distance e-while its rattle in
the closed and narrow passage filled
the place with its sound.
al was clad only in nightshirt, trous-
ers and slippers, and there was nothing
in sight with which to defend myself.
The reptile was all the tims drawing
nearer, ami had covered half the dis
tance TO me before 1 thought Of the
silver bullet in my trousers pocket and
realized that my one chance Of stop
ping the snake lay in my striking its
head with the bullet. Iwas in my
boyhOod very skillful in the throwing
of a stone, and the art has never left
me. A thing that made my chance
uLllc DcltCt tlAn o~o--% - 49,
ingis the rattlesnake's manner of meet
ing an attack. 1t does not try to avoid
but confronts whatever threatens it, al
ways turning its head so as to face the
object. / chose a time when, after
forward lunge, it drew forward into
coil and, at six feet away threw the
bullet at its head with all my force.
IL struck true, and as the snake half
Strengthened its coils aud writhed upon
the floor 1 stepped safely past it into
my room. After that of course 1t was
easy to make an end of the snake with
my pistol.
.rhe silver bullet had certainly been
my salvation in this case. 1t was less
than two years afterward that II was
the means OF saving my life in another
and very surprising way. was IN
Chihuahua visiting the Las Quesadas
4 L II t..f a