CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
51 
slithering as he went, thereby getting double traction. Heading 
straight for our feet he stopped short within three or three 
and one-half feet of us, turning his head quickly in all direc¬ 
tions, looking for his hole which had, to his complete discom¬ 
fiture, vanished from view (as explained, it had been closed 
with the spade). He was faced with a situation which required 
that he evolve new strategy. Being thus outwitted, he sank 
slowly down into the wiregrass, lying as flat as possible upon 
it, even bearing upon the very ground with his chin, kidding 
himself into believing that he had never been seen. Then came 
our opportunity. Easing the noose over his head and jaws, we 
succeeded in taking up all the slack. With a firm grip upon 
him, the end of the short staff was pressed into the ground. 
With him securely tied, the real labor and risk incident to his 
capture was at an end. During all this time his general de¬ 
meanor did not change—he appeared more frightened than 
angry—the expression of his eyes did not change. He at no 
time assumed a menacing posture, but was interested only in 
making his escape. 
Growing out of this adventure we gained a bit of knowledge 
shared by few people, i.e., when occasion demands he possesses 
real speed. Ordinarily they travel snail’s pace. It is so univer¬ 
sally believed that their slothful manner of travel is all they 
have that almost everyone is lulled into a sense of false 
security. 
In addition to his many and varied arts, he is an adept at 
psychology. When he is encountered in the woodland by those 
unacquainted with his ways, they usually take note of the direc¬ 
tion in which he is crawling as well as the pace at which he is 
traveling, and then turn aside for a distance of fifty or one 
hundred feet to get a pole with which to kill him. No sooner 
than he observes that his antagonist has taken his eyes off him 
he speeds at the pace of the hare for the nearby underbrush. 
On the return of the man to the scene, though he had taken his 
eyes off him for no more than a quarter or half minute, there 
was no rattler anywhere to be found. Such incidents are fre¬ 
quently being reported, and those victimized by his craftiness 
spend the remainder of their lives wondering how he managed 
to perform such a seemingly impossible physical feat. 
