horror.

With eyes dilated with terror, with every nerve tense to the
snapping-point, she watched with fearful fascination that hideous, slimy
head as with slow, rhythmic motion it swayed from side to side, the
forked tongue darting from the horrid mouth as lightning rends the
skies. Staring straight into the cruel, beady eyes, her fixed gaze
seemed riveted there against her will, as if the reptile had cast over
her a hypnotic spell. She felt herself gradually growing numb, cold
sweat burst from every pore, her flesh crept, and there was a tingling
sensation at the roots of her hair.

Each instant she expected that the cobra would dart forward and strike
her. The suspense was fearful. The seconds seemed like centuries. She
wondered when the fatal moment would come that would mean her death.
Certainly, all was over with her now. The storm, the shipwreck--that was
nothing. This new peril, a thousand times more deadly than those she had
emerged from safely, was momentarily coming nearer, and she was
powerless to avert it. She must be resigned to perish miserably and
cruelly the most shocking of deaths. Escape was out of the question.
Coiled up in threatening attitude at the foot of the bed the reptile was
between her and safety. If she attempted to run she would never reach
the open.

That the cobra was conscious of her presence and was preparing to attack
there could be no doubt. It showed its irritation in the manner usual to
its species, by dilating its neck until it formed the shape of a broad
hood. Evidently the reptile made its home in one of the dark recesses
of the cave. Asleep, it had awakened during the night, and its keen
sense of smell attracted by the unusual odor of a warm human body, it
had crawled to where she lay and now was ready to claim its prey. The
slightest move on her part and it would dart forward. A lightninglike
thrust forward of that loathsome head, then the powerful, scaly coils
would close around her, there would be the ghastly sound of bones being
crunched, and all would be over. Armitage would come in only to find her
mangled and partially devoured body, perhaps himself to meet with a
similar fate.

Again she opened her mouth to scream and warn him. Her tongue clove,
speechless, to her dry palate. A feeling of nausea came over her, her
temples were throbbing, her heart seemed to have stopped beating. She
wondered if she had gone mad.

She was noting the curious, spectacle-like markings