CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
65 
would depart from his usual procedure as he again approached 
the spot where he knew him to be. He would pursue the same 
general strategy as a pointer dog locating birds. When an ex¬ 
perienced bird dog knows rather definitely the location of a 
covey of quail, he completely surrounds this spot for the pur¬ 
pose of verifying his belief, then getting the wind on them he 
proceeds to split the circle, and there you are. This old Negro 
would, with the idea in mind of confusing the rattler, disregard 
his usual order of chipping and would work boldly through 
the area where he knew the rattler to be. This would serve 
the purpose of throwing the rattler on the defensive. As a 
counter-maneuver, the rattler would start crawling, but the 
old Negro had become somewhat of a strategist also and 
would, to offset the rattler’s move, start working in a large 
circle, gradually drawing in toward the center. Such tactics 
on his part seldom failed to bring the two together, to the 
rattler’s complete discomfiture. 
During his long years in the open, he came upon a female 
rattler which had swallowed her young, seeing that a fight was 
eminent. He was carrying his ax along through the woodland, 
holding it by the end of the handle with his right hand, jump¬ 
ing it along the ground as he advanced. Suddenly he found 
himself near the coil of a rattler, preparing to strike. With 
lightning-like speed he jabbed upon the coil with his axe, leap¬ 
ing for his life at the same instant. The sharp edge of the tool 
landed squarely upon the neck of the reptile, severing her head 
from the body. There before his eyes transpired an incident 
which he had heard since boyhood, but had never had occasion 
to witness. The small rattlers came running out at the end of 
her severed neck. 
On the occasion to which we shall presently refer, the old 
wizard had a feeling that his quarry had definitely and for 
good eluded his watchful eye. He had trailed him over newly 
cultivated land and into a rough spot of ground in the center 
of his cornfield. There had once been a rail partition fence 
entirely across the field, but both ends had been torn out and 
the rails used elsewhere on the farm, leaving a small sector of 
the fence in the center of the field, with newly tilled soil en- 
