Speaker 1: The Snake Fiend by Farnsworth right. Even as a child,
Speaker 1: Jack Creamy delighted in collecting reptiles, and he seemed to
Speaker 1: absorb much of their venomous nature. His best loved pet
Speaker 1: was a large black snake, But when it caused him
Speaker 1: a whipping by crawling into his father's bedroom, he roasted
Speaker 1: it over a slow fire in a large pot, listening
Speaker 1: with glee to its agonized hissing, and pushing it back
Speaker 1: with a stick when it strove to crawl out of
Speaker 1: the searing container. It was no cause for wonder, then,
Speaker 1: that his burning love for the girl of his dreams
Speaker 1: turned to fierce hate when she became the bride of another.
Speaker 1: Creamy's sentiment for Marjorie Bressey was aroused by her fine
Speaker 1: Italian beauty, which reminded him of his mother. He could
Speaker 1: have fallen in love with any other girl as easily
Speaker 1: if he had set his mind to it in the
Speaker 1: same way. By dint of comparing her with his mother's picture,
Speaker 1: he conceived a great admiration for her. Then he wished
Speaker 1: to possess her, to be her lord and master, to
Speaker 1: marry her, gazing on her every day with this thought
Speaker 1: in his mind, his admiration grew to a burning passion.
Speaker 1: Of all this, he said nothing to Marjorie, and then
Speaker 1: it was too late. Marjorie loved and was loved by
Speaker 1: Alan Jimmerson, a young civil engineer. Creamy neither threatened nor cajoled.
Speaker 1: He simply accepted the fact and meditated revenge. He was
Speaker 1: all smiles at their wedding, and he gave them a
Speaker 1: wedding present beyond what he could reasonably afford, while he
Speaker 1: planned to tumble their happiness in ruins about their ears.
Speaker 1: After a short honeymoon, Jimmerson departed with his wife to
Speaker 1: take up his duties as resident engineer of some construction
Speaker 1: work on the Western Railroad. Creamy, his face glowing with
Speaker 1: friendship and goodwill, was the last to clasp Marjorie's hand
Speaker 1: in farewell as the train pulled out of the station.
Speaker 1: Write to me often, Marjorie, was his parting injunction. Send
Speaker 1: me a letter as soon as you get settled, and
Speaker 1: let me know how you are getting along. I don't
Speaker 1: want to lose touch with either of you, and he
Speaker 1: meant it. Marjorie was fond of the handsome, manly looking
Speaker 1: Italian youth and liked him immensely as a friend, although
Speaker 1: she had never been in love with him. No sooner
Speaker 1: was she settled in her new home than she wrote
Speaker 1: him a long letter telling of her husband's work, the
Speaker 1: bleakness of the desert country, and the strange newness of
Speaker 1: her life. She and her husband occupied a cabin together
Speaker 1: up from the bulk housing of the construction camp in
Speaker 1: the sagebrush region of northern California, not far from the
Speaker 1: Nevada border. A fierce joy and exultation leapt in Creamy's
Speaker 1: heart when he read Marjorie's letter. You would like this
Speaker 1: country better than I do, she wrote, for it is
Speaker 1: infested with rattlesnakes. The bare desert rocks on the ridge
Speaker 1: four miles from our cabin are swarming with them. Uugh,
Speaker 1: they sun themselves in tangled masses, Alan says, But truly,
Speaker 1: I can't bring myself to go near the place. I
Speaker 1: get quite too much of snakes without that, for we
Speaker 1: are constantly killing them in the sagebrush. This country has
Speaker 1: never been settled, and except for an occasional prospector, there
Speaker 1: was nobody to kill them before the surveyors came. The
Speaker 1: Indians never bothered the snakes, but passed by them on
Speaker 1: the other side of a sagebrush and leave them in peace.
Speaker 1: Creamy scored these in red ink, word by word, as
Speaker 1: if to blazon them on his memory, and he drew
Speaker 1: little pictures of snakes on the margin. He burned out
Speaker 1: Marjorie's signature with acid, spitefully watching with minute care as
Speaker 1: the letters faded, and gleaning a savage satisfaction from seeing
Speaker 1: the paper run away under the venomous bite of the poison.
Speaker 1: Then he fed the paper to the flames as he
Speaker 1: had roasted the black snake years before, and watched the
Speaker 1: missive burn into black ashes and crumble slowly away, page
Speaker 1: by page into gray dust. Followed Creamy's pursuit of the pair.
Speaker 1: His arrival was not expected by either Jimison or Marjorie,
Speaker 1: but it was nonetheless welcome for both of them. Like
Speaker 1: the genial, companionable Italian life on the edge of the
Speaker 1: desert had few distractions at best, Creamy's eyes lit with
Speaker 1: genuine pleasure at the sight of his prospective victims. The
Speaker 1: joy on both sides was sincere. No, this isn't a
Speaker 1: pleasure trip, he explained to them, although I expect to
Speaker 1: have pleasure enough out of it before I get through.
Speaker 1: I have turned from collecting reptiles to studying their lives
Speaker 1: and habits. I intend to write a monograph on rattlesnakes.
Speaker 1: When I got your letter, Marjorie, I knew that I
Speaker 1: could do no better than to come here. I expect
Speaker 1: to become very well acquainted with that ridge you wrote about,
Speaker 1: where the snakes sun themselves in tangled masses. Marjorie shuddered,
Speaker 1: and Creamy laughed. Well, don't bring any of your snakes
Speaker 1: around here, she said. I turned cold, and something grips
Speaker 1: at my insides every time I hear one rattle. Creamy
Speaker 1: built himself a small cabin about a mile from the Jimmersons,
Speaker 1: in the direction of the rattlesnake ridge he had during
Speaker 1: the shack tastefully, and Marjorie's deft hand gave it a
Speaker 1: distinctively feminine neatness and charm to its appearance. He became
Speaker 1: a frequent visitor at the Jimmerson's cabin, and evening after
Speaker 1: evening he read to them in his melodious, well modulated voice.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the draftsman or transitman would come in and Creamy
Speaker 1: would join in playing cards until late at night. He
Speaker 1: seemed to take pleasure in the company of Marjorie and
Speaker 1: her husband, and his face always lit up at the
Speaker 1: sight of them, especially when they were together. But it
Speaker 1: was the joy of a boy who sees the apples
Speaker 1: ripening for him on the neighbor's tree and knows that
Speaker 1: they will soon be ready for him to pluck. He
Speaker 1: was almost happy when he was meditating his frightful revenge.
Speaker 1: As his preparations drew near their end, he often spent
Speaker 1: whole hours gloating over the fate in store the couple.
Speaker 1: For Marjorie, in loving Jimmerson had aroused him to insane jealousy,
Speaker 1: and Jimmerson, having robbed him of his heart's desire, was
Speaker 1: included in Creamy's fierce hate of the girl who had
Speaker 1: crossed him. Then one evening, Marjorie and her husband happened
Speaker 1: in at Creamy's cabin. Marjorie expressed her horror at the
Speaker 1: thought of Creamy wandering among the snake infested rocks of
Speaker 1: the Rattlesnake Ridge. The snake hunter seated her on a
Speaker 1: box that contained a twisting knot of the venomous reptile. Marjorie,
Speaker 1: serenely unaware, talked on blithely, and Creamy's merry laugh pealed
Speaker 1: out at regular intervals. He was in right jovial mood
Speaker 1: that evening, for he was ready to spring the death
Speaker 1: trap prepared for his two friends. He only awaited a
Speaker 1: favorable opportunity to strike. The opportunity came when the surveyor's cook,
Speaker 1: crazed by bad whiskey, smashed up the kitchen. Jimmerson discharged him,
Speaker 1: and the cook buttered threats of a horrible vengeance. Shut up,
Speaker 1: Jimmerson ordered, this is the third time you've been seeing snakes,
Speaker 1: and now you've wrecked the cookshack. You ought to be
Speaker 1: sent to jail or a lunatic asylum. It's you that'll
Speaker 1: be seeing snakes. The cooks fluttered, you and that Italian
Speaker 1: wife of yours will see plenty of them, red and green,
Speaker 1: and Jimmerson struck him across the mouth and set him
Speaker 1: on his way. This was in the evening. The draftsman
Speaker 1: and the rodsmen went to town the next day to
Speaker 1: hire a new cook, while Jimmerson and Marjorie went on
Speaker 1: an outing at the headwaters of the Feather Creek. It
Speaker 1: was Sunday, and they intended to spend the day together,
Speaker 1: Cramini declined their invitation to accompany them. It was the
Speaker 1: molting season, he explained, when the snakes were casting off
Speaker 1: their skins. He could ill afford to lose a day
Speaker 1: of observation at this time, for he had several perplexing
Speaker 1: points to clear up before writing his monograph. Cramini walked
Speaker 1: fearlessly from rock to rock of the Rattlesnake Ridge, chuckling
Speaker 1: to himself the tangled, massive snakes of which he had
Speaker 1: been told existed only in rumor. Although there were snakes
Speaker 1: in plenty if one looked for them. Tangled masses would
Speaker 1: serve his purpose later, but he had gathered them here
Speaker 1: and there, one or two at a time. By noon,
Speaker 1: the little cluster of cabins occupied by the engineers was deserted.
Speaker 1: Marjorie and her husband had gone since sun up, and
Speaker 1: the surveyors were all in town. Not a soul was
Speaker 1: stirring in the neighborhood of the shacks, and the men
Speaker 1: at the construction camp were mostly lying around in their
Speaker 1: bunks playing cards. Cramenie nailed fast the windows of Jimmerson's cabin.
Speaker 1: Then he entered and secured the bed to the floor
Speaker 1: so that it could not be moved. He laboriously carried
Speaker 1: his box of snakes a mile or more from his
Speaker 1: room to the little gully behind the surveyor's cabins, and
Speaker 1: hid them in the sage brush. Marjorie and her husband
Speaker 1: came back from their tramp after dark that evening, dog tired,
Speaker 1: Marjorie cooked a little supper, and by ten o'clock the
Speaker 1: two were asleep. Cramini entered their cabin about midnight. They
Speaker 1: were fast in the chains of slumber, and he did
Speaker 1: not find it necessary to muffle his tread. He removed
Speaker 1: the chairs, shoes, clothes, and even the hand mirror and
Speaker 1: toilet articles. Everything that might serve as a weapon, no
Speaker 1: matter how slight, he took away. Then he brought his
Speaker 1: snakes from the gully and collected them in front of
Speaker 1: the cabin. When he had assembled them all, he knocked
Speaker 1: the top from the largest box, carried it into the room, and,
Speaker 1: in the audacity of his certain triumph, he dumped the
Speaker 1: twisted mass of rattlesnakes on the bed where Marjorie and
Speaker 1: her husband lay asleep. The other boxes he emptied quickly
Speaker 1: just inside the door and withdrew, for he had no
Speaker 1: wish to set foot among the venomous serpents. Revenge is
Speaker 1: never satisfied if the retribution overtakes the avenger, and Cromini
Speaker 1: had no wish to share the fate of his victims.
Speaker 1: He locked the door from the outside and battened it.
Speaker 1: Then he removed the boxes that had contained the snakes
Speaker 1: and returned to his cabin and peacefully went to sleep.
Speaker 1: Marjorie awoke with the first rays of the sun and
Speaker 1: lazily opened her eyes. Her heart leapt suddenly into her throat,
Speaker 1: and she was white awake in an instant. A flat,
Speaker 1: squat head of a rattlesnake was creeping along her breast.
Speaker 1: Its beady eyes were fixed on her face, and its
Speaker 1: red tongue flicked before her like a forked flame. For
Speaker 1: a moment, she thought she was still dreaming, but the
Speaker 1: familiar outlines of the room lying themselves in her consciousness,
Speaker 1: and she knew that what she saw was real. Her
Speaker 1: shriek rent the air as she threw back the bedclothes
Speaker 1: and sprang to the floor. She stepped on a coiled serpent,
Speaker 1: which sounded an ominous warning as it struck out. Blindly,
Speaker 1: she quickly climbed back on the bed and stood on
Speaker 1: the pillow, screaming. Her husband was beside her, at once
Speaker 1: hazily trying to understand the import of the hysterical torrent
Speaker 1: of words she was sobbing into his ears. For an
Speaker 1: instant he thought she must be in the clutch of
Speaker 1: some horrible nightmare. Then a quick startled glance around the
Speaker 1: room turned his blood to ice. There was now a
Speaker 1: continuous rattling, as of dry leaves blowing against a stone wall.
Speaker 1: For Marjory's screams had galvanized the snakes into activity. The
Speaker 1: room was filled with their angry din It sounded in
Speaker 1: Jimmerson's ears like the crack of doom. The floor seemed
Speaker 1: covered with the creeping reptiles. Some were coiled, the whirring
Speaker 1: tips of their tails making an indistinct blur as they rattled,
Speaker 1: and their heads swaying slowly back and forth. Others writhed
Speaker 1: along the floor, their venomous squat heads thrusting forward and withdrawing,
Speaker 1: and their tongues darting out like red flames. On the
Speaker 1: bed itself, there was a motion underneath the thrown back coverlet,
Speaker 1: and the ugly gray head of a thick, four foot
Speaker 1: snake protruded from under it, the evil eyes shining dully
Speaker 1: as if through a film of dust. It extricated itself
Speaker 1: and coiled as if to strike. While Marjorie shrank fearfully
Speaker 1: against the wall. Wide eyed with horror, Jimmerson attacked the
Speaker 1: reptile with the pillow, sweeping it off the bed onto
Speaker 1: the floor. He quickly looked around him for a weapon
Speaker 1: and saw at once that he was trapped. There was
Speaker 1: not even a shoe or a pin cushion with which
Speaker 1: to fight the crawling, rattling creatures. He tried to rock
Speaker 1: the bed toward the window as boys moved sawhorses forward
Speaker 1: while sitting on them, but the bed was firmly fastened
Speaker 1: to the floor, and in his efforts to release it,
Speaker 1: he was bitten on the wrist by the strike of
Speaker 1: a large snake coiled near the foot of the bed.
Speaker 1: Jimmerson flung the reptile across the room and sprang to
Speaker 1: the floor with an oath, crushing a large rattler with
Speaker 1: his heel as he jumped. He raced to the door
Speaker 1: and wrestled with it for a full minute before he
Speaker 1: discovered that he and Marjorie were locked in that serpent hole.
Speaker 1: He sprang to the window and felt a sharp stab
Speaker 1: of pain in the flesh of his calf, as the
Speaker 1: open jaws of another reptile found their mark, and the
Speaker 1: poisoned fangs were embedded deep in the flesh. The window,
Speaker 1: like the door, was nailed fast, but he broke out
Speaker 1: the glass with his bare fists, unmindful of the blood
Speaker 1: on his lacerated hands. He was back at the bedside,
Speaker 1: treading over reptiles with his bare feet. Marjorie lay on
Speaker 1: the bed unconscious. He lifted her in his bleeding arms
Speaker 1: and hurled her through the window to safety. He struggled
Speaker 1: out after her, tearing open his bitten leg on the
Speaker 1: jagged pieces of glass still left in the window frame.
Speaker 1: The spurting blood drenched him, and he leaned, faint and
Speaker 1: dizzy against the cabin. As three of his surveyors came
Speaker 1: running up, having been attracted by margine screams. In almost
Speaker 1: incoherent words, he told them what had happened. He asked
Speaker 1: them to make immediate search for the discharged cook, for
Speaker 1: there was no doubt in Jimmerson's mind that it was
Speaker 1: the cook who had placed the snakes in the room.
Speaker 1: Then the sky went suddenly black before his eyes, and
Speaker 1: he lost consciousness. At that minute, Crimini was waking from
Speaker 1: a peaceful dream. He recalled what he had done the
Speaker 1: night before, and blissfully mused on what must be taking
Speaker 1: place in the Jimmerson cabin. A phantasmagorical succession of pictures
Speaker 1: weltered in his mind. Marjorie and her husband fighting with
Speaker 1: bare hands against the serpents, bitten a score of times
Speaker 1: by the angry fangs of the rattlesnakes, clinging to each
Speaker 1: other in terror, sinking to the floor in agony as
Speaker 1: the poisons swelled their tortured limbs, and overcame them, lying
Speaker 1: green and blue in death, with rattlesnakes crawling and hissing
Speaker 1: over their dead bodies. It is remarkable how few people
Speaker 1: die from rattlesnake bites, even when as badly bitten as
Speaker 1: Jimmerson was. Probably not one adult victim in a hundred
Speaker 1: succumbs to the venom. Although mistaken popular belief considers rattlesnake
Speaker 1: poison as fatal as the death potion of the borges,
Speaker 1: Jimmerson had known too many cases of snake bite to
Speaker 1: believe his case hopeless. He did not give up and die,
Speaker 1: nor did he try to poison his system with whiskey.
Speaker 1: He knew that this condition was serious, but he let
Speaker 1: rest and promagnate. A potash rubbed into his wounds affect
Speaker 1: a cure. The bleeding from the lacerated leg had almost
Speaker 1: entirely washed out the poison, and there was little swelling.
Speaker 1: The pain in his swollen wrist, however, distended almost to bursting,
Speaker 1: kept him from sleeping, and the sickly green hue of
Speaker 1: the bite distressed him, but it did not kill him. Creamy,
Speaker 1: careful observer of reptiles though he was, had never known
Speaker 1: an actual case of snake bite, and he shared the
Speaker 1: popular illusion that the bite of the rattlesnake dooms its
Speaker 1: victims to death. Hence, he was certain of the complete
Speaker 1: success of his revenge, and his gloating glee was unclouded
Speaker 1: by even the shadow of a doubt that Marjorie and
Speaker 1: her husband had been killed in his death trap. He
Speaker 1: awaited only the supreme joy of drinking in the details
Speaker 1: of his success to feel the exultant thrill of complete victory.
Speaker 1: As Creamy sat alone two days after the horrible morning,
Speaker 1: Jimmerson was limping slowly toward his cabin. His swollen hand
Speaker 1: still pained him badly, and there was a dull ache
Speaker 1: in his ankle when he put too much weight on it,
Speaker 1: but he thought the fresh air would benefit him, Supporting
Speaker 1: himself with a cane and leaning heavily on Marjorie at times,
Speaker 1: he went painfully toward the young Italian's deserted home. Not
Speaker 1: once had his suspicions pointed toward Creamy as the author
Speaker 1: of the crime, for the guilt of the lunatic cook
Speaker 1: seemed all too clear. Besides, he liked Creamy for his
Speaker 1: genial camaraderie, his joviality and good humor, and his frank
Speaker 1: interest in everything that concerned either him or Marjorie. So
Speaker 1: intent was the snake fiend on passing the torments of
Speaker 1: his victims before his fancy, that he did not hear
Speaker 1: the knock on his cabin door. His brain was too
Speaker 1: busy to heed the message sent by his ears, for
Speaker 1: he was feasting on the mental and physical tortures that
Speaker 1: Jimmerson and Marjorie must have endured before they lay cold
Speaker 1: in death on the floor of the cabin, hideously discolored
Speaker 1: by the venom of the rattlesnakes by degrees. He became
Speaker 1: conscious that he was not alone. Two persons stood before him,
Speaker 1: and he raised a vengeful spirit on the story he
Speaker 1: had been waiting two days to hear. Even when he
Speaker 1: gazed at those whom he had consigned to a horrible death,
Speaker 1: the thought that they were alive did not permeate his consciousness.
Speaker 1: The idea of failure had never entered his mind for
Speaker 1: even an instant. They were dead, beyond the peradventure of
Speaker 1: a doubt, and now their avenging ghosts stood before him.
Speaker 1: Krimy dropped to his knees in white terror and crawled
Speaker 1: behind his chair. He clasped and unclasped his hands in
Speaker 1: agony of fear. Sweat poured from his face and bathed
Speaker 1: his body. He implored mercy. He screamed for forgiveness. He
Speaker 1: gibbered like a frightened ape. Half forgotten words in Italian
Speaker 1: learned from his mother's knee fell from his lips. He
Speaker 1: pleaded and begged for his life, crawling on his face
Speaker 1: toward the amazed couple in an endeavor to clasp their knees.
Speaker 1: As the meaning of his broken ejaculations was borne in
Speaker 1: on them. A tremendous loathing and disgust overcame them. Marjorie
Speaker 1: clung to her husband, unnerved at the repulsive sight of
Speaker 1: the malicious coward groveling on the floor and trying to
Speaker 1: kiss their feet. Cramini shrieked and gnawed his hands as
Speaker 1: he saw the avenging angels of his victims leave the cabin.
Speaker 1: It was impossible for the stern hand of the law
Speaker 1: to inflict greater punishment on Jack Cremine than his own
Speaker 1: malice had wrought for him. To day, he occupies a
Speaker 1: padded cell in a hospital for the incurably insane. The
Speaker 1: End of the Snake Fiend by Farnsworth right