“I never knew that cats could catch snakes,” said Bob, incredulously.
“Wall, that there one o’ mine could. Every day he used to go with me when I hunted the critters.”
“Tell us how he did it,” the two boys said in the same breath, and Sam, delighted by the interest they showed, willingly complied.
“Wall, it wuz this way,” he began. “Tommy—that wuz what I called him—would hunt around till he found a good big rattler. Then he’d creep on him on them soft paws o’ his’n, then all a sudden, when he wuz just in front o’ him, he’d make a little noise and hold up his paw. At the noise the snake would coil hisself up into a ball and rattle somethin’ turr’ble. But Tommy, he’d never stir an inch. That would make the reptile awful mad, and he’d strike out at that raised paw o’ Tommy’s with all the strength he had in him. That’s just what the cat had been countin’ on, an’ when the rattler struck, he would jump aside quick as lightnin’. Then when the snake would go past him, Tommy, he’d jump and land right on the critter’s neck, just below his head. Yes, he wuz great on ketchin’ snakes, old Tommy wuz!”
“What became of the cat?” Ben asked, eagerly.
“Why, he lived to be sixteen years old, Tommy did, and at the end o’ that time passed off quiet and peaceful like. He lived a happy life and a durn useful one, too, which is more’n you kin say fur most cats,” he added.
Although the boys would gladly have stayed longer with this old man who knew so many interesting tales, they knew Scout-Master Durland would be anxious about them. They urged Old Sam to go with them back to camp and stay to dinner, but he refused on the plea that the “museem man” was coming to take away “them durned reptiles,” and he had to be on hand to receive him.
“I’ll go with ye a little ways through the woods, though,” he said, “and see that ye don’t get stuck in no more bogs.”
So they started merrily for the camp. Old Sam’s bacon and strange stories had had a good effect on the two boys and they felt themselves again.
The snake hunter gave all the bogs a wide berth, and beguiled the way so pleasantly with his interesting talk that before they knew it they were almost on top of the camp.