ng. The bed was
unoccupied except by himself. He bent down and scrutinized the floor
for his enemy, and set his teeth as he thought how he would tear it and
mangle it. It was light enough, but first he would put on his boots. He
leant over cautiously, and lifting one on to the bed, put it on. Then
he bent down and took up the other, and, swift as lightning, something
issued from it, and, coiling round his wrist, ran up the sleeve of his
shirt.

With starting eyeballs the Jew held his breath, and, stiffened into
stone, waited helplessly. The tightness round his arm relaxed as the
snake drew the whole of its body under the sleeve and wound round his
arm. He felt its head moving. It came wriggling across his chest, and
with a mad cry, the wretched man clutched at the front of his shirt with
both hands and strove to tear it off. He felt the snake in his hands,
and for a moment hoped. Then the creature got its head free, and struck
him smartly in the throat.

The Jew's hold relaxed, and the snake fell at his feet. He bent down and
seized it, careless now that it bit his hand, and, with bloodshot eyes,
dashed it repeatedly on the rail of the bed. Then he flung it to the
floor, and, raising his heel, smashed its head to pulp.

His fury passed, he strove to think, but his brain was in a whirl. He
had heard of sucking the wound, but one puncture was in his throat, and
he laughed discordantly. He had heard that death had been prevented by
drinking heavily of spirits. He would do that first, and then obtain
medical assistance.

He ran to the door, and began to drag the furniture away. In his
haste the revolver fell from the drawers to the floor. He looked at it
steadily for a moment and then, taking it up, handled it wistfully. He
began to think more clearly, although a numbing sensation was already
stealing over him.

"Thirty thousands pounds!" he said slowly, and tapped his cheek lightly
with the cold barrel.

Then he slipped it in his mouth, and, pulling the trigger, crashed
heavily to the floor.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Skipper's Wooing, and The Brown
Man's Servant, by W. W. Jacobs

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SKIPPERS WOOING ***

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