The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-10-11
AND
0/ks~ AssiaR b. 9etosu,e.a Messil


began to creep slowly toward him.
she could have reached him win
one bold leap. In building the dead
fail he had not thought OF this pos
sibiiify. She looked for al the world
~ II she we're getting ready to
spring. He was badly frightened.
but his head remained clear and his
hands did not tremble too much. He
calculated as wen as he could
where she would be toward the end
OF her spring. Holding the gun with
MS left hand. be directed the muz-
gle toward this imagined place. ana
with his right hand grasped the
hammer-stons with which 10 strike
the hring-pin when the time came.
The muscles Of the great gaunt
sne-oeast were all tensed and quiY.
ering. but she did not spring. She
tensed forward inch by inch untr
presently the first trigger obstruct.
ed her. She placed one forepav
lightly upon IT, The first touch
could not have broken an egg but
as she continued to edge forward,
the paw had TO support weight, and
suddenly the trigger gave way and
In moment she was broken and
buried under a ton OF heavy TIM
bers-
Now. OF course. was the males
chance. but In the crash of the dead
tan and the sound OF his mates one
scream he forgot the hunger that
tortured him and fed in an abjeet
panic of fear and with no more
subiimity than q common house
cat when jumped by q dog.
The crash and the scream walked
Ivy from her sound sleep. She hur-
ried through the cave to the back
door. stumbling. tripping and bark.
ing her shins in the darkness.
When she reached the opening
Bowers was already more than half.
way up the ladder. He was badly
shaken. and his nerves were jump
Ing like fieas. He was painting as II
he had been under water, and
words came from him only in jerks.
"WE GOT one -. phewl" This
w was followed by a broken
laugh. He leaned against the side OF
the cave and bit his lips.
you're not hurt?"
His breath now came and went
more smoothly.
"No." he said. @But was I scaredi"
"What happened?"
Words and phrases now came
easily. and he told her full speed
ahead.
"And So" he finished, "all We
have to do is to build our trap again
and wait until the male comes into
it. Just now he probably thinks
that he would rather starve to
death. But he won't be strong
enough to do that. Hunger viii hurt
him so that he'll be willing to try
anything once. The yellow dog!
Sending his wife In first to see what
would happeni Then. IL nothing
had happened. and she'd got me af.
ter taking all the risks. he'd have
driven her on until he had eaten
all the choice pieces"
They rebuilt the deadfall only TO
find. one morning. that it had been
sprung during the night. Examina,
ton disclosed the crushed. mangled
body OF McLeod's thirty-foot py-
thon. which had swum ashore from
the Boldero-
Hitherto they had hardly given
the great serpent a thought, but
now they experienced retrospective
thrills of horror. He could have
oozed up their ladder and into the
cave at any time. and without ef-
fort and crushed one or the other
of them as they slept.
At the base of the gully where
the volcanic ash was loose and
deep. they scraped a shallow pit
aud buried the remains of the py-
thon. When the deadfall was once
more set they thought. the odor Of
these remains, uncovered for the
purpose would draw the remaining
tiger into the trap.
But the remaining tiger was
again raYenously hungry. He lurked
In the neighborhood Of the deadfall
all the time they were rebuilding It.
and behaved so menacingly that
they laid and maintained barrier
of fire against him. Sometimes he
came close to this FIRE and roared
at them.
While Bowers toiled Ivy stood By
with the gun and the hammer-stone.
ready to pass them to him II the
need arose. This time he was work
ing backward from the mouth Of the
gully in order to place at least few
heavy logs and one loosening trig-
ger between them and the enemy.
But this neeessitated certain
changes and arrangements. and
what with this and the fact that he
was working nearly all the time
with one eye on tiger, made prog
ress slow.
fcespisGs. 1884. b ces-errsur korrisl
Tomorrow. Ivy breaks Iltelens