104 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
She had simply transformed herself into a motorless bus for 
the transportation of her offspring. To him it was by no means 
inconceivable that she also ferries them across rivers, lakes and 
lagoons in like manner. Indeed, the rattler seems to have a 
very fertile storehouse of expedients when it comes to carrying 
out her objectives. 
All who have pursued these creatures for any very great 
length of time agree that, with the rattler, it is always some¬ 
thing new—that one never seems to learn about all their secret 
arts and devices. 
Another strange incident we are about to relate occurred 
during the year 1918. The German army had exerted itself 
to the utmost in a vain endeavor to overrun Paris, the Channel 
ports, and so menace the seat of the British Government as to 
enable her to dictate her own terms of peace. There was 
visible signs of the rapid disintegration of their war machine. 
A small party of men well known to us were gathering 
fodder in a cornfield down by the river swamp. In their con¬ 
versation they had rather well covered all the latest develop¬ 
ments, when one member of the party suggested: “Perhaps 
we’d better give some thought to dangers nearer home. I 
never made a crop yet but that I would find one or more rat¬ 
tlers in this field.” The very next stalk of corn stripped of its 
blades he dusted off the back of a large one with the tail ends 
of the fodder he held in his hands. 
One member of the party plead with his companions that 
they permit him to torment the serpent for a time—he merely 
wished to induce him to sing his rattles as violently as possible. 
It seemed that he had never seen one in an exceedingly angry 
mood. The other members of the party assenting, he went 
into the woodland where he cut down a long, slender pine 
with which to accomplish his design. While inflicting no pain¬ 
ful injury upon the serpent he sought to build up his temper to 
the point of exasperation. For a time he sang his rattles furi¬ 
ously, then attempted to run away from his tormentor, but on 
every such attempt he was headed off and thrown back into 
the field with the long pole. Finally the diamond-back desisted 
entirely from singing his rattles. He appeared utterly oblivious 
