206 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
which it played among the serpents of the world. The king 
cobra of Asia, the black mamba of Africa, the bushmaster of 
South America, and the death-adder of Australia are all fatal 
and terrible snakes, yet none of them exceed in deadliness the 
diamond-back rattlesnake of North America, and none of them 
equal the menace of its appearance. 
Coiling itself in the broad pathway of white sand, the great 
snake lay there, the deadliest creature that Southern moon 
ever shone upon. Even against that snowy background, it 
looked like a patch of withered bracken, so subtly did its color¬ 
ing melt and fuse in the moonlight. Still as the sand itself on 
that windless night, yet the serpent was hunting its prey in the 
infinitely patient, yet supremely confident way of its kind. 
For a long time there was no sound beneath the stars. Then 
from across the water came the ghostly hoot of a great horned 
owl, hunting among the scattered islands of the swamp. The 
silence was broken at last by a dripping sound at the edge of 
the island as a marsh rabbit, an expert swimmer, landed, hav¬ 
ing taken to the water to avoid the owl. Then came a series of 
tiny thuds as the little animal came hopping leisurely down 
the trail. 
Although snakes do not hear in the ordinary sense of the 
word, yet the rattler was instantly conscious of the vibrations 
of the rabbit’s feet, and its coiled body became tense as a steel 
spring. As the rabbit passed the blur of brown among the 
green fans of the dwarf palmettoes, there was a flash of motion 
against the sand, too swift for any human eye to register, and 
the rattlesnake was back in its coil again as if nothing had oc¬ 
curred. Yet, in that tiny instant of time, a number of separate 
things had happened. The mouth of the great snake had gaped 
wide, and the movable fangs of its upper jaw had flashed out 
of their sheaths of white gum-like tiny spear-points. At the 
same instant the flat head had shot forward, burying the 
crooked white needles deep in the rabbit’s side, while the 
muscles around the poison sacs contracted, spurting a jet of 
the amber essence of death into the hollow fangs, and from a 
hole in their side, like that in a hypodermic needle, deep into 
the veins of the little victim. There was a frightened squeal, 
