laughed Audrey. "That's the only pretty thing I have ever
heard you say. I am sure it must be your first attempt. Now, isn't it?"

He laughed.

"And it wasn't strictly honest," proceeded Audrey daringly. "You know
you don't think that of any woman under the sun."

He did not contradict her. He had a feeling that she was fooling him,
but somehow he rather liked it.

"What about the women under the moon?" he said. "Perhaps they are
different?"

She nodded merrily.

"Perhaps they are," she conceded. "Certainly the men are. Now, you are
about the stodgiest person I know by daylight or lamplight
except--except--" She stopped. "No, I don't mean that!" she said, with
an impish smile. "There is no exception."

Phil was frowning a little, but he looked relieved at her amendment.

"Thank you!" he said brusquely. "I shall never dare to come near you
after that."

"Except by moonlight?" she suggested, with the impudent audacity of a
child.

What reply he would have made to that piece of nonsense he sometimes
wondered afterward, but circumstances prevented his making any. The
words had only just passed her lips when she sprang to her feet with a
wild shriek of horror, shaking her arm with frantic violence.

"A snake!" she cried. "Take it away! Take it away! It's on my wrist!"

Phil Turner, though young, was accustomed to keep his wits about him,
and, luckily for the girl, her agony did not scare them away. He had
seized her arm in a fierce grip almost before her frenzied appeal was
uttered. A small snake was coiled round her wrist, and he tore it away
with his free hand, not caring how he grasped it. He tried to fling the
thing from him, but somehow his hold upon it was not sufficient. Before
he knew it the creature had shot up his sleeve.

The next instant he had shaken it down again with a muffled curse and
was trampling it savagely and vindictively into the stones at his feet.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, wheeling sharply.

"No," gasped Audrey, "no! But you--"

"Yes, the little beast's bitten me," he returned. "You see--"

"Oh, where, where?" she cried. "Let me see! Quick, quick! Something must
be done. Can't you suck it?"

He pushed up his sleeve.

"No; can't get at it," he said. "It's just below the elbow. Never mind;
it isn't serious!"

He would have tweaked his sleeve down again, though he was pale under
his sunburn. But Audrey stopped him, holding his bare arm between her
hands.

"Don't be a fool!"