The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-01-16
.R0BBER WAS FOOLED
BIZ YENOM0US snake

IT oTEsfNeg or NAN ON WHOM
ROBIN q TEMP WAS (
MADE.
Rsys N Perciyal Bate rector otlsa
lJames,s Episcopal Church. Newark
talked about his travels recently TO q
club Of young meh attached tc ST
PauPs Episcopal church, Newark.
3Among other things he told % one
might he spent while on an exhibition
Ito the great falls Of the zambesi, in
Isouth Africa, when the party canpeti
lin the forest and told stories while
stretched around the fire. says the
NEW York Sun.
In the company were Oxford and
Cambridge men, a graduate Of Yale
and another from Princeton, and
somehow they! got to talking about Rs;
ron's 'Prfsoner Of chillon.s Some
one asked the question IL It were pos
sihle for a mans hair to turn white in
a single night. There was a brisk
discussion on the point until some one
said:
WED better let old Bill Lee, sitting
lover there, settle the debate. How
ahoRt 1t, BILL"
The man addressed tod a story, q
tue one, Of HIS own experience in an
swer.
He said that some years before he
had been mining further down the
country in camp filed with all sorts
Of strange characters, from the very
ends of the earth, and some Of them
about as desperate men as could be
found anywhere. His own claim was
about two miles out of the mining set
Element.
Usually he washed out his gold at
the end of each day and took it to the
bank, but once it so happened that for
1.-Two days he was too tired at nightfall
to take his gold In. On the evening
of the third day he took all his wash.
ings in gold dust for three days, and
digging hole in the ground withll
his tent, buried 1t and built a campfire
lover it.
After his supper he lighted can
Idle, stuck it on a box and lying down
sank into the slumber Of the health
fully tired. After time he was awak-
eded by feeling Of something cold
stealing up his right leg. lie did not
raise his body but in the dim light OF
the candle he was able to make out
the lower end Of one Of the most poI'
onous snakes in all Africa, one whose
bite is fatal.
Lee knew that II he moved his leg
the snake would bite him. and he lay
motionless for some time wondering
What to do. After a time it occurred
to him that II the snake crawled to
his abdomen it would surely cause hita
to move, SO he would arouse the SER
pent to strike, so he cautiously reach
ed down and frightened his belt, which
he had 1oqsened for the night.
! The snake moved forward slowly
and steadily. he could feel Its cold,
clammy body ascending, with the slow.
ness Of the hour hand OF a clock, and
the deliberateness Of its motion caused
an INDISPENSABLE horror to arise in
him, and the cold sweat broke out on
his body. He could see no way out Q,
the fix and he tried to resign himself
to death.
Strangely and mysteriously the sto-
\ ry Of his whole life began to pass BIS.
fore his mental vision; deeds, long
since forgotten came rushing back into
his memory in troops. He had little
doubt now that he was to die there
thus shabbily. far away from his Eng
lish home, on the dreary veldt.
He4stretehed out one hand iandifelt
about the ground until his fingers came
upon a nail. He then paved about IN.
til he could iasten his fingers over IT,,
edge of an empty meat tin, and bring:
ing the tin to his chest he slowly
scratched message to his sister In
the hope that those who found his
body would also light upon the scrawl,
he able to declpher it and send It IL
The address he painfully etched upn
the tin.
Then he composed himself TO-
death; with the empty meat can OF
his chest, all the time feeling the slow.
advance Of the deadly thing along his
lefg. He thinks he sank into sort
of stupor tr trance, but again con.
sciousness came to him AMI he found
himself devising new scheme for
| 49, 1.t....HR o.. ~ S......,.