168 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



opening of the burrow, I grasped it and pulled 

 the lizard off, allowing the snake to go free. My 

 opinions were now changing, and I began to 

 judge that the lizard might have been quite as 

 much the aggressor as the snake. After I pulled 

 the lizard away, he ran off a little to one side 

 and, tilting his head upward, looked at me 

 saucily and reproachfully, as much as to say, 

 "Well, what business do you have around here 

 to meddle in my affairs, anyway?" 



"Scat," I said, "you ungrateful beast!" 

 And he scurried off into the brush to rest and 

 ease up as best he could his much-stretched 

 limbs. 



And of course you ask: "What happened to 

 the snake?" And my only answer can be that 

 he crawled on down a hole; and he did it in a 

 hurry, too. 



Since this occurred I have often speculated as 

 to how this battle between the reptiles began. 

 It no doubt would have been an interesting 

 thing to have witnessed the struggle from be- 

 ginning to end ; for it would have given one such 

 a realistic picture of those struggles and scenes 

 of carnage which in ancient geologic times were 



