The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1899-03-28


jump on chairs or tables when they see
amouse, but have a constitutional hor-
ror of the most harmlessreptiIes. Watch
ing the blue dryad as it glided across the
patch of sunlight streaming in from
the open window, and knowing what it
was, confess to being as nearly fright
ened out of my wits as / ever hope to
be- | simply dared not speak or move
a finger for fear of attracting the
beasts attention to myself Suddenly
Sto1iles, weary of patting flies and
spiders on the back, appeared gently
purring on the back of the sofa.
Stoffies, as have said, was inordinate-
ly vain and self-conscious. Stalking
along the top of the sofa-back and bear
ing erect the bushy banner of her mag
Dificent tail, she looked the most
ridiculous creature imaginable. She
had proceeded halfway on this pill
grimage toward me- when suddenly.
with the rapidity of lightning, as her
ear caught the sound of the hiss and
her eyes fell Upon the blue dryad, her
whole civilized ''play-acting" demeanor
vanished, and her body stiffened and
contracted to the form Of watchfuI
wild beast with the ferocious and in
stinctive antipathy to natural enemy
blazing from its eyes. In one light
bound she was on the floor in 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
10 \ H. IL.
window. Stofles trotted lightly after,
obviously interested in its method CT
locomoticn- Then she made a long
ann and playfully dropped paw upon
its tail The snake wriggled free in
moment, and coiling its whole length,
some three and half feet, fronted this
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
to know exactly what she was doing.
As the dryad raised its head, with gilt
tering eyes and forked tongue, Stofiles
crouched with both front paws in the
air, sparring as l had seem 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 at its
advancing head. The first missed, but
the second 1 could see came home, as
the brute, shaking its neck and head,
withdrew further into the rug. But
Stoffies crept after it, with an air of at
tractiye carelessness which was Instant
~ 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, 1 say, to slow7going human
eyes; but the latter shrank, literally
fell back, col.apsing with such sudden
ness that she seemed to have turned
herself inside out, and become the mere
skin Of a cat. AS the serpent recovered
itself, she pounced on it like lightning,
driving at least half a dozen claws well
home, and then, apparently realizing
that she had not good enough hold,
sprang lightly into the air from off the
body, alighting abouta yard off. There
followed a minute of sparring in the
air; the snake seemingly half afraid to
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 dryad4 maddened b.
the scratehings of puss and it's own I'M
successful exertions, was so furious,
and SO close to myself, that l shuddered
4,r- ha 7 \ h-r- Ior -
position on the sofa without almost
treading upon Stofies, whose bristling
back was not yard FROM my feet. At
last, thoughts the blue dryad, for
one second coiled close as black silk
cable, sprang out the next as straight
and sharp as the piston-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 nextI Little did appreciate the
resources of Stoffles, who, without
change in her vigilant pose, without q
wink CT her fierce green eyes, sprang
backward and upward on to the top of
me, and there confronted the enemy
calmly as ever, sitting, if you please,
upon my feet!
Trembling all over with fright,
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 snake-as everybody knows, natur-
ally rears its head when fighting. In
that position, though one may hit it
with a stick, it is extremely difficult,
as this battle had shown, to get hold of.
Now, as the dryad, curled to a capital S,
quivering and kissing advanced for the
last time to the charge, ii was bound
to strike across the edge of the sofa on
which lay, at the erect head of Stofiles,
which vanished with a Juggling CELEBRITY
that would have dislocated the collar
bone OF any other animal in creation.
From such an eXertion The snake re-
covered itself with an obvious effort,
quick beyond question, but not nearly
quick enough. Before could well see
that ii had missed its aim. Stoffles had
launched out like a spring released, and,
burying eight or ten claws in the back
of its enemy's head. pinned it down