s character. Radnor was occupied a good deal of the
time--spring on a big river plantation is a busy season--and as I had
professed myself fond of shooting, the Colonel turned me over to the
care of Cat-Eye Mose. Had I myself been choosing, I should have selected
another guide. But Mose was the best hunter on the place, and as the
Colonel was quite untroubled by his vagaries, it never occurred to him
that I might not be equally confident. In time I grew used to the
fellow, but I will admit that at first I accepted his services with some
honest trepidation. As I watched him going ahead of me, crouching behind
bushes, springing from hummock to hummock, silent and alert, quivering
like an animal in search of prey, my attention was centered on him
rather than on any possible quarry.

I shall never forget running across him in the woods one afternoon when
I had gone out snipe shooting alone. Whether he had followed me or
whether we had chosen the same vicinity by chance, I do not know; but at
any rate as I came out from the underbrush on the edge of a low, swampy
place, I almost stepped on the man. He was stretched face downward on
the black, oozy soil with his arm buried in a hole at the foot of a
tree.

"Why Mose!" I cried in amazement, "what on earth are you doing here?"

He responded without raising his head.

"I's aftah a snake, sah. I see a big fat gahtah snake a-lopin' into dis
yere hole, an' he's skulkin' dar now thinkin' like he gwine to fool me.
But he cayn't do dat, sah. I's got 'im by de tail, an' I'll fotch 'im
out."

He drew forth as he spoke a huge black and yellow snake, writhing and
hissing, and proceeded to smash its head with a stone. I shut my eyes
during the operation and when I opened them again I saw to my horror
that he was stuffing the carcass in the front of his shirt.

"Good heavens, Mose!" I cried, aghast. "What are you going to do with
that?"

"Boil it into oil, sah, to scar de witches off."

Inquiry at the house that night brought out the fact that this was one
of Mose's regular occupations. Snake's oil was in general favor among
the negroes as a specific against witches, and Mose was the chief
purveyor of the lotion. Taken all in all he was about as queer a human
being as I have ever come across, and I fancy, had I been a psychologist
instead of a lawyer, I might have found him an entertaining study.

I heard about this time some fresh rumors in regard to Radnor; one--and
it came pre