CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
235 
recalled the words of the horseman, “Dealing with this fellow 
was not a one-man job.” The strategy he employed was abso¬ 
lutely uncanny. From the front he kept his adversary com¬ 
pletely occupied, but at the same time he executed such a 
maneuver as he advanced that his antagonist was steadily 
being backed into a dense growth of ty-ty shrubs not more 
than ten feet distant, where he hoped that he would become 
trapped, thus permitting him to attack and then gain the un¬ 
derbrush. Now, Uncle Dave was not the type of adversary to 
be taken in by such strategy. He knew the mind of rattlers 
so well that when he found himself in a tough spot he would 
reason from the standpoint of the diamond-back himself, ask¬ 
ing, “If I were a rattler, just what would I do?” Having the 
answer in hand he would prepare himself to guard against 
just that. By the application of such mental processes he de¬ 
termined in an instant of time that the above was the rattler’s 
plan of attack. Having satisfied his mind, and he did not have 
long to make a decision, he stooped low, making a lightning- 
like stroke at his neck, on a parallel with the earth, to make 
sure of eliminating the possibility of a miss. He laid his ad¬ 
versary low. As he stood over him, viewing him as he writhed 
in his dying agony, his face registered no sign whatever of 
strain, neither the slightest fear, but did show unmistakable 
evidence of mingled emotions. He said simply and apologet¬ 
ically, as though addressing his remarks to his dying foe, 
“Didn’t mean to hit you that hard, ye ol’ imp o’ Satan—jes 
meant to take some o’ the fight out’n ye.”* 
♦See sketch, page 134. 
