There was a sharp crack, a loud rustling, and the man darted back with
only half his staff in his hand, to run out of the tent, and leave me
alone with the body of the first serpent, which I half fancied was
moving slowly toward where I lay helpless, if it happened to have still
vitality enough left in its shattered length to come and wreak its
vengeance on one who could not defend himself.

But while I was watching the slowly writhing creature, which in the dim
light looked of far greater proportion than before, I could hear
trampling and voices outside, then loud rustling as if men were hurrying
about through bushes, and at last, to my great relief, the man came
back.

"Thy servant struck the snake," he said, "and broke the staff; but so
much of it was outside that it darted back and crawled away before we
could get to the spot and find it. The creature has gone away to die."

"And now others will come, and that one too, if you have not killed it."

"No, my lord," he said. "That was the mate of the snake I killed. They
go two together, and there is no fear. I struck it so hard that it will
die, and the hole up there shall be fastened tightly."

To my great satisfaction, he bent down and took the serpent by the tail
and drew it out of the tent, and I heard him give orders to his
companions to drag it right away into the forest, and to bury it as soon
as it was day.

As he was talking, I was conscious of a peculiar, slightly musky odour
pervading the tent, and I was wondering what it could be, when the man
returned with two or three burning splints of some aromatic wood, which
gave forth a great deal of smoke, and he walked about the tent, waving
the pieces and holding them low down near the carpet where the serpent
had lain, and also along a track leading past the lamp to the side of
the tent where I had seen the shadowy form of the second serpent.

He busied himself in this way till the matches were pretty well burned
down, and then placed the ends in a little brass vessel, which he stood
on the carpet not far from my couch.

Then approaching me, he said humbly, and with a low reverence--

"Will my lord grant his servant's prayer?"

"What do you mean?" I said, rather testily, for his excessive humility
worried me. I hated to be worshipped like that. "Not tell the rajah
about the snakes?"

"If my master the rajah knows, thy servant may be slain."

"What! for that?" I said.

"Yes, my lord. His hi