BLACK BEAR DETOURS FOR MR. RATTLER 
Of all the living beings of earth, sea and air, there is but 
one that does not fear the lurking menace of the swamp—the 
diamond-back rattlesnake. This one animal is the king snake, 
which is immune to the rattler’s venom and attacks him with¬ 
out hesitation wherever he may be found. And amid infested 
swamps many a battle royal is fought out to the death between 
these two formidable serpents—with victory almost invariably 
going to the king snake. 
The Red Men have long been gone. Only names and 
mounds and terrible memories of them remain. Yet, their 
lands are not unguarded. There, among the silent shrouded 
cypresses still lurk dwellers more dangerous than the Seminoles 
and fiercer than the painted warriors of the Creeks. 
On a warm night in early summer, as the full moon wheeled 
above the rim of the world and illuminated the dark places of 
the Great Swamp, from an island hidden in the depths came 
the booming bellow of the bull alligator. Fourteen feet long, 
of vast girth, with the menace of dagger-like teeth and lashing 
tail, the great reptile seemed the unchallenged ruler of the 
place. Yet, the real autocrat of that island was another, silent 
and deadly as death itself. 
That night he came out from a clump of dwarf palmettoes 
under whose leaves he had lain coiled all through the long, hot 
hours of the day—an eight-foot rattlesnake, gray-green in 
color, his back marked with that chain of olive-colored dia¬ 
monds bordered with yellow which have given this species its 
name. 
Slowly the thick body, over a foot in circumference, moved 
along the ground in an unwavering line, leaving a deep print 
in the sand, straight as the track of a wheel. The glittering 
black eyes set in the wide, heart-shaped head, had oval pupils, 
that hall-mark of a venomous snake, while a dark band beneath 
each eye emphasized the terrible menace in their depths. 
As the great serpent moved slowly forward, its forked 
tongue flickering in the air like a black flame, it looked the part 
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