s took
him, and he remembered no more.

When the dwarf awoke it was to find himself lying on the floor of the
cave, but not alone, for by his side, twisted into a last and hideous
contortion, lay the Snake god--dead! The upper part of the double knife
had worked itself into its brain, and, with a dying effort, it sought
the den where it had lived for centuries, dragging Otter with it, and
there expired, how or when he knew not. But the dwarf had triumphed.
Before him was stretched the ancient terror of the People of the Mist,
the symbol and, indeed, the object of their worship, slain by his skill
and valour.

Otter saw, and, bruised and shaken as he was, his heart swelled with
pride, for had he not done a deed single-handed such as was not told of
in the stories of his land?

"Oh! that the Baas were here to see this sight!" he said, as he crawled
along the length of his dead enemy, and seated himself upon its flat
and loathsome snout. "Alas! he cannot," he added, "but I pray that my
watching spirit may spare my life, that I may live to sing the song of
the slaying of the Devil of the People of the Mist. _Wow!_ that was a
fight. When shall a man see another? And lo! save for many bruises and
the cutting of the rope about my middle, I am not greatly hurt, for the
water broke the weight of his tail when he smote me with it. After all,
it is well that the line held, for it served to drag me from the pool as
it had dragged me into it, otherwise I had surely drowned there.

"See, though, it is nearly done with," and grasping that end of the cord
which hung from the jaws of the crocodile, he broke it with a jerk, for,
with the exception of half a strand, it was frayed through by the worn
fangs.

Then, having rested himself a little, and washed the worst of his hurts
with water, Otter set himself to consider the position. First, however,
he made an utterly ineffectual effort to extract the great knives.
Ten men could not have moved them, for the upper blade was driven many
inches deep into the bone and muscles of the reptile's massive head. But
for this chance it would have soon shaken itself clear of them; but,
as it was, every contortion and gnashing of its jaws had only served to
drive the steel deeper--up to the hilt, indeed.

Abandoning this attempt, the dwarf crept cautiously to the mouth of the
cave and peered at the further banks of the pool, whence he could hear
shouts and see men moving to and fro, apparently i