152 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
weaned until late summer. As likely as not he might bag the 
whole family—the male, he knew, would not be there—he 
would be off some place hunting—doubtless not returning for 
a full month at the time. No gentlman rattler feels it manda¬ 
tory upon himself to conform to man’s code of social and moral 
ethics, neither to observe any of the Ten Commandments. Let 
him take who has the power, and let him hold who can, is the 
only law known to the jungle. No sense in him lying about the 
house making love to her all summer to the neglect of his rabbit 
hunting. From of old he has known of her weakness for 
strong men. He would be serving his own best interests should 
he leave her to the mercy of the world during the whole sum¬ 
mer—leave her to hunt her own rabbits and attend the brats 
to boot. Yes, he would give, hunting his undivided attention 
that he might grow fat, sleek and strong during the summer 
months, the better to defend that which was his with the return 
of mating season in early fall. He had no assurance but that 
some robust home-wrecking sheik might appear at his very 
threshold with the coming of early fall and challenge him to 
defend all rights and title to his wife of yesteryear. Any gen¬ 
tleman rattler who during the summer months suffers the mis¬ 
fortune of losing his mate leads a rather lonely existence for 
a time, but welcomes the thought that early fall will usher in 
another mating season which often resolves itself into a regu¬ 
lar love tournament. No, he has no aversion whatever to an¬ 
other romance—at the proper time he plans going courting, 
and it makes little difference to him whose wife he wins, just 
so he wins one. 
Small rattlers and those of medium build look forward with 
keen delight to the day when they will be strong enough to 
dethrone some old patriarch upon whom accumulated years 
have brought a condition of decrepitude, provided, of course, 
that they have not as yet been able to whistle up a bride of their 
own size. 
All the known physical facts tend to substantiate the theory 
that these small and medium size rattlers have been victims of 
no little “cuffing” about at the hands of these old bullies of the 
hummocks—not because of their women alone, but they as 
