Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1906-12-28
THE MAN AND THE SNAKE.
An Awful Experience Which Made
Natural Enemies Kin.


dazzling sky pressed down unclouded L
the touch of the parched rim'rock. BE
tween the hills the shallow basin lay
baked and breathless over it the
tense air quiyered with heat, Within
no bird Auttcrod nor water puzzled MOI
green plant raised its head. Only the
desert children, sagebrush and grease
wood and long spined cactus, gray but
never dying, lived on there in the
drought, sterile and forbidding as the
land which gave them birth,
Everywhere was silence upon the
place, everywhere was immobility, save
where the man lay and where beside
him the bound snake whirred and
writhed and ratified in the impotent
fury of fear.
The man lay stretched on the hot
earth stark naked. his face turned to the
I sky. A buckskin thong passed across
I his throat and was drawn taut between
I two roots of sage brush. The moose
which held his ankles was secured about
a clump of grease.wood, and both arms
/ thonged at the wrists, stretched wide
rs in crucifxion. Heavy bands of buck.
skin spanned his body SO that to the
prisoner there were but two possible
movements. lie could turn his head
from side to side, facing on the one
hand the snake. on the other the minia.
ture forest Of sage brush. and he could
clench and unclcnch his pinioned hands.
In this last freedom the final ingenu.
ity of savage captors had found ex.
preston With the left hand tight
clenchcd. the snakes wild stroke fell
Just short of its aim. Should sleep or in
sensibility relax the fingers, the rep
tile 5 head might overlap them.
Since early morning, through the in
creasing heat of the day, the man had
lain there. grim and silent as the gray
hills around him, save when now and
then he raised his hoarse voice in de.
FAINT shouts. The snake. on the other
hand, struggled and fought increasingly
against the cord which held him, strik.
ing impartially at It, at the just re-
moved fingers or at the wooden stake to
which the cord was tied, grovelling his
body in the sandy earth, writhing and
Juggling with protruding tongue, and all |
the while transating in whirr and hiss |
the blind fear of his captivity.
Sometimes the man turned his head /
to watch; once or twice when the /
snake s movements tagged he slightly |
stirred his fingers in the sand, the Tuse
each time rewarded by the swift spring /
and fruitless stroke. But mostly he lay |
still, all his mind bent on endurance,
The man had been placed there to
die lie knew ii and the knowledge
tinged his thoughts with n strange Gu.
riosity. There were three ways in
which death might reach him; through
the snake, through sunstroke or by the
weary route of thirst and hunger, The
second and quickest of these ways the
light mountain air, vibrantly hot though
it might be, rendered improbable. For
the snake, it was a part of the mans
torment that at any minute he might
stretch forth his hand and by the move
nent invite an end, brief indeed, but
horrible to the mind, doubly horrible to
he strained imagination.
There was one other chance. An un-
rainstorm, a heavy dew in
hat barren place, would so stretch the
lender buckskin thong which held the
attler that unaided he might reach
md strike his victim. This was the ele
nent of uncertainty in the grim prob !.
EN-. This it was that sent the mans /,
yes searching the bare horizon with a
ook half dread, half longing.
On one of these weary journeys of
light tiny speck of black above the
Western hills attracted nina steady
inpont of the dazzling blue. He shut '
is eyes moment in order to look ..
gain the more intently, and when he
pened them, lol the dark points were /
wo. He watched them Incompetence
ngly, as slowly and steadily high in air
hey moved from west to east. When at
asst in midheaven the sun s sheer
trength beat down his gaze, he was the :
,nelier for loss of this one sign of II
lovement.
ITO anguish. The man s exposed body .
rev and quivered beneath the sun :
iys as though each inch of it were en- !,
owed with separate life. Unseen in q
Gets brushed and fiuttered upon it,
aving beneath their light pressure a Il
all like fire on the blistered surface. >
he snake lay prone, exhausted almost n
eyond striking. The man, noting it,
niled grimly and seraped his fingers d
)isily in the loose earth AS the snake II
hirled to front the challenge, he curled III
is hand close with taunt for its
title effort. IL
He was thus engrossed when sud ~
,nly across his face swept sense of q
,licious GOODNESS. He turned his head; y
ose above him, almost within touch of al
free hand, great black bird, carrion a.
every movement, lowered on steady, al
tspread wings. Its shadow fell across
S face; its eyes, beadlike and glisten- W
G and greedy, looked straight into his 81
vn. '"
For an instant they stared thus, man =,
d bird. Then with a cry the man flung tf
mself against his bonds, struggling al
d straining at them for escape from ut
is new horror. On his body, dry till OF
W, the sweat poured forth in streams. ey
God gushed from his nostrils. With
rieks, with oaths, with stumbling ca