CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
31 
cal pain or mental distress. Observing with care, having 
already suspicioned the reason for the cat’s trouble, he saw 
clearly the head of his ever-present foe, the rattler, protruding 
slightly through the crack of the fence. He could not coil and 
accomplish his design, but he drew his rattles around in such 
manner as to play them by the very side of his head. He was 
not singing violently, but with sufficient volume as to keep the 
attention of the cat. When the old gentleman sought to rescue 
the cat from his approaching doom he found it a difficult task. 
Each time he kicked him away from the danger he came run¬ 
ning back, drawing nearer and nearer each time to the source 
of his torment. It was not until he had thrown him underneath 
the house with violence that the spell was broken. The kitten 
left the house afterwards and did not return for several days, 
something he had never before done. On his return he was 
poor, emaciated, and could not be induced to eat the most ap¬ 
petizing food for a time. 
Now, Uncle Dave is not the type of person to become wed¬ 
ded to an idea until it has stood the acid test. He goes about 
proving or disproving his theories with as much pains as a 
chemist working out his formula. He reasoned that if all this 
queer behavior on the part of the cat was not attributable to 
some uncanny power the serpent possessed, then the cat should 
respond to the presence of a dead rattler in like manner as to 
a living one. So, keeping such thought in mind, he took another 
cat one day and dropped him head foremost into a barrel con¬ 
taining the carcass of a dead rattler. The result was that the 
cat bounced out of the barrel after the manner of a rubber 
ball. He could scarcely believe that his feet ever touched the 
bottom of the barrel. He spat once or twice as he regained 
terra firma, and with bushy tail standing out, clawed up the 
front yard leaving the scene. 
Another observer of unquestioned veracity reported an in¬ 
cident quite convincing if one will but recognize the truth when 
face to face with it. This individual was working in his field 
when his attention was attracted to the cry of a rabbit down 
in a rough piece of woodland. The rabbit cried so piteously 
and persistently that he abandoned his work and went down 
