270


CREATURES  OF  MYSTERY


All  that  has  been  recorded  herein  of  a  complimentary  nature
about  the  diamond-back  is  strictly  true,  yet  he  is  a  killer  of  the
first  order  whose  varying  moods  it  is  impossible  to  predict,  and
should  therefore  be  destroyed.
Uncle  Dave  does  not  have  it  on  his  conscience  that  he  started
this  war,  and  just  why  the  diamond-backs  should  have  precipi¬
tated  hostilities  is  not  quite  clear  to  the  writer.  Had  they
known  this  old  gentleman  as  I  have  come  to  know  him  they
would  surely  have  held  their  fire,  since  no  person  in  America
was  better  qualified  to  promote  their  utter  undoing.
Relatives  and  friends  have  pleaded  with  him  to  make  an  end
of  it — to  call  the  whole  thing  off — lest  Dame  Fortune  some
day  turn  her  back  upon  him  at  a  critical  moment.  Their  en¬
treaties  serve  no  useful  purpose — merely  “Nettles”  him.  He
has  absolute  faith  in  a  sort  of  psychic  feeling  by  which  he  has
always  been  governed,  and  believes  confidently  that  no  rattler
will  ever  have  a  hand  in  writing  the  concluding  chapter  of  his
life.
THE  END.
