The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1909-01-28

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of great excitement. His feathers
were ruled. his head was thrust
forward on q short neck, his wings
were extended and shrill scream fol-
lowed scream firm his wide-opened
beaked mouth.
Mrs. Andrews was just in the act
of ascending the three steps which
led from the yard to the gallery
when the door of an unusued room
facing the landing was softly opened
and the villaincus face CT Miguel, the
Mexican, showed in the aperture.
Mrs; Andrews, seeing the man, and
reading murder in the expression OF
his features, rushed past him on the
gallery, screaming for help and in
tending to seek refuge behind the
barred door of her room. but Miguel
was swifter than she, and, overtaking
her, seized her by the arm and drew
her toward him.
"The Mexican, iragg:ng the
screaming woman to the door of the
unused room, suddenly threw her
with great whence to the flor, and
then, reaching behind him, picked up
a sack, beneath the rough fields CT
which some object was moving, and,
swinging the sack from side to side,
shook out a three-foO Ut rattlesnake.
Miguel was quick to bound from the
gallery to the yard, and the snake,
wriggling two inches from Mrs. An
dreWs' feet, in a wild rage threw it.
self into a coil and thrust forward a
nat, ugly head, from the scaIy Jaws
CT which protruded a q%uivering. split
tongue. And while the head de-
scribed short half-circles, which al
ways come before the fatal cast, the
pointed tail of the reptile showed
from tae ear Of the fJlds, AMI, vio-
1ently agitated, gave of a peculiar
burning noise from the rattles.
Mrs. Andrews lost one of her Slip
pers in the struggle, AID the sole of
her foot, covered only by a thin
stocking, offered an easy target for
those venomous fangs. The lady sat
up and gazed at the snake, and, held
~powerless in the chains of e benumo-
Ing terror, was unable to move. The
snake darted it's head back and forth,
and gradually its scaly head on an
ever-Iengthening neck came closer to
the foot, until finally it was only a
few inches from it. The rattler drew
back its head, arched its neck to one
side, and opening wide it's Jaws, was
Just in the act of making its terrible
cast, when the unforeseen happened.
Pedro, who had been swaying
wildly on his perch, with RULED
feathers and open beak, and screech-
ing the while, tapped his wings, de-
pressed his head and flew like a
streak of lightning toward the srake.
The parrot landed en- top of the scaIy
folds, and instinctively sought to
grab h reptiles neck in his strong
bill. The point of the beak instead
caught the snake on the head and
the lower structure of the. mouth
sunk with crushing force int the
side OF the rattler's neck. The snake,
IN a paroxysm OF pain, wriggled and
twisted, and Pedro was thrown some
feet away, but the bird, with a
sQuawk of anger. quickly recovered
himself, and, with wings extended
and beak open, he hcbbled on his
uncertain legs toward the writing
terror.
THE diversion created by the par
rot's attack had given Mrs. Andrews
opportunity to regain her presence
of mind, and the lady, springing to
her feet, seized a handy broom and
smashed and battered the snake with
it and brushed the belligerent Pedro
back, to keep the parrot from coming
into proximity ot the deadly fangs
The snake was soon out of the fight.
ing, the broom having broken hi:
back in several places, and Mrs. An,
drews swept the still wriggling form
from the gallery to the yard. Pedro
showed an inclination to. follow thu
snake, but Mrs. Andrews stopped
and, gathering her brave champion
into the folds of her apron, fed will
him into the house.
Miguel, during the strange anC
thrilling scene, had stood in the yarc
close to where the box in which h
brought the snake lay, contemplat
ing, with deVilish satisfaction, tn,
peril of his enemy's wife, but whel
his vengeance was baked by the par
rot and the RATHER was subsequent,
routed, with an oath he fed, and
leaping onto the back of his mule
which was hidden in a copse of tree
a short distance from the house, gal
loped away.
"The terror of these awful mo
ments had so unnerved Mrs. An
drews that she went into Mysteries