The Anaconda standard., 1899-08-27

Let the blacky by a sudden leap grasp
| the throat of the unwary rattle and
the chances are he will never let go
again until death them do part but
IL that first chance be lost and the two
meet in fair fight after fair warning,
the fangs of the rattle are pretty sure
to gain. him the victory.
IN tnls instance no such misfortune
was the blacky's. He made his spring
and got his grip of the throat and
there he held on like grim death" :"
With fury that was sometimes awful
the rattle wriggled and shook and
rolled and writhed. He leaped into the
ar, twisted and tossed himself about
banged his assailant down on the
ground, rolled on him and over him.
put all in vain. Blacky simply stuck.
Nothing could move him, nothing tempt
MIN or compel him to relax his hold for
single moment To have done so
would have been almost certain death
to himself: but through all the rear
lngs, leapings, tossings, writhings and
hissngs of his victim he held on with
a relentless tenacity that was equal
only to his love of his own life and
his hate of his foes.
Thus for more than an hour and a
half the life and death game was kept
up without minutes intermission and
without any sign of weakening on eth
er slde. Then We perceived that the
rattle's strength seemed to be giving
way, and all of a sudden he coiled him.
self up and lay still, as if to die.
Whether it was from sheer exhaustion
or only ruse to deceive his enemy, a
faint or feint, we were not sure. We
thought II was the former, but blacky
evidently thought otherwise. He un-
derstood his enemy better than we did
and did not mean to be tricked. Down
he lay by the side of the PROSTATE vic
HI IL h III l.
the now torn and crumpled throat
Then, after a quiet interval, the one
sided truce having come to an end or
the ruse having failed, the rattle rose
again and resumed the unequal strug-
gle with the energy of desperation-a
supreme struggle for life. Again he
reared and rolled and coiled and darted
up and down. forward and backward,
carrying his enemy with him in all his
contortions, trying by every conceivable
twist to get his fangs into the merci-
less foe; but all in vain. Then we be-
gan to see in the victim renewed signs
of failing strength but, notwithstand-
ing increasing weakness, he struggled
for time continuously, then intermit-
tently, until, more than two hours and
half after the first attack, the rattle
gave up the contest and lay down to
die. This time it was no ruse. But
even then blacky still stuck and il was
not until the corpse began to stiffen
that he let go his hold.
On the part of the victor there was
no sign of triumph, no dancing around
the PROSTATE enemy; but with all possi-
bic staidness and straightforwardnes
the hero prepared for the celebration
of his victory. He began by stretching
and Strengthening out the lifeless body,
smoothing out every crease and every
wrinkle on it's scaly surface. with what
intent we could not even guess. He
seemed to have assumed the role of un-
dertaker and to be preparing the corpse
for decent burial, magnanimous toward
a brave though defeated foe. Not a
twist or wrinkle was left upon the car
cass from tip to toe, from nose to out
stretched tail Then, to our greater be-
wilderment. We saw that he was lick
straight parallel lines of saliva along
its entire length, which, with the rays
of the setting sun falling on it, eXhib-
tied all its varied hues and made us
long for it's possession that we might
carry it away with us. But the darky
had something better to do than indulge
a benevolent sentiment for our gratifi-
cation. For 10 minutes or more he con-
tinued his preparations until he made
Sor or five streakS of saliva, which
shone like satin ribbons, laid loriZon-
tally on the dead body from end to end.
Then blacky shook himself ami, hav-
ing done so, took up his position at the
head of his victim and calmly gazed