ts head and raised its long body till it stood almost on the
tip of its tail, and it swayed slowly to and fro.

Oliver Haddo seemed extraordinarily fascinated. He leaned forward with
eager face, and his unnatural eyes were fixed on the charmer with an
indescribable expression. Margaret drew back in terror.

'You need not be frightened,' said Arthur. 'These people only work with
animals whose fangs have been extracted.'

Oliver Haddo looked at him before answering. He seemed to consider each
time what sort of man this was to whom he spoke.

'A man is only a snake-charmer because, without recourse to medicine, he
is proof against the fangs of the most venomous serpents.'

'Do you think so?' said Arthur.

'I saw the most noted charmer of Madras die two hours after he had been
bitten by a cobra,' said Haddo. I had heard many tales of his prowess,
and one evening asked a friend to take me to him. He was out when we
arrived, but we waited, and presently, accompanied by some friends, he
came. We told him what we wanted. He had been at a marriage-feast and was
drunk. But he sent for his snakes, and forthwith showed us marvels which
this man has never heard of. At last he took a great cobra from his sack
and began to handle it. Suddenly it darted at his chin and bit him. It
made two marks like pin-points. The juggler started back.

'"I am a dead man," he said.

'Those about him would have killed the cobra, but he prevented them.

'"Let the creature live," he said. "It may be of service to others of my
trade. To me it can be of no other use. Nothing can save me."

'His friends and the jugglers, his fellows, gathered round him and placed
him in a chair. In two hours he was dead. In his drunkenness he had
forgotten a portion of the spell which protected him, and so he died.'

'You have a marvellous collection of tall stories,' said Arthur. 'I'm
afraid I should want better proof that these particular snakes are
poisonous.'

Oliver turned to the charmer and spoke to him in Arabic. Then he answered
Arthur.

'The man has a horned viper, _cerastes_ is the name under which you
gentlemen of science know it, and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian
snakes. It is commonly known as Cleopatra's Asp, for that is the serpent
which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour of Caesar in order
that she might not endure the triumph of Augustus.'

'What are you going to do?' asked Susie.

He smiled but did not answer. He step