160 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
thing, or any human being with whom they ever had any un¬ 
pleasantness, growing wiser as the years go by. 
A venerable old gentleman once related an incident which 
I at the time doubted very seriously but which has since been 
rendered perfectly understandable viewed in the light of this 
horseman’s experience. He held one at bay, armed with a 
ten-foot pole. Before striking the reptile he had occasion to 
turn his head for an instant, and as he did the rattler’s body 
passed his face like a shadow. Had the blow been more 
accurately aimed, he would have fastened his fangs in the old 
gentleman’s face or breast. 
The above is fully corroborated by other witnesses, all of 
them well known to me. One was riding a horse through rough 
woodland when one struck him upon the upper part of knee- 
high leather boots. 
Under similar circumstances, another friend had one strike 
at the nose of his horse. This stroke was a complete miss, due 
to the fact that the horse was too alert. Missing the object of 
his wrath, the rattler landed on the other side of the settle¬ 
ment road the horseman was following. According to this ob¬ 
server’s statement, the reptile must have leaped clear of the 
ground and for a distance of at least eight feet. 
A member of our hunting party once had a close call when 
one leaped three feet straight up out of its coil. It happened 
in this way: Fresh sign had been seen about a hole he was 
using for a den. Before kneeling down for a better look into 
the depths of the hole, he took the usual precaution of jabbing 
here and there for some distance, just to be sure that he had 
not concealed himself beneath the deep growth of wiregrass 
about the hole. The answer was that he had. When the point 
of the shovel landed squarely upon his coil he leaped almost 
his full length into the air, mouth wide open, fangs unsheathed 
—a deadly menace to those nearby. All members of the party 
fell backwards, or in opposite directions from the reptile, be¬ 
having as they would had a bomb exploded in the midst of 
them. All members in the party had hunted the diamond-back 
for many years, had passed through every danger to which one 
might expect to become exposed, and their nerves were so 
