ure of coriander and oil of sassafras upon some part of
their bodies, and then either to lure or drive them into the forest. By
a peculiar arrangement of Mother Nature this mixture has a fascination,
a maddening effect upon the Mynga Worm, just as a red rag has on a bull,
and, enraged by the scent, it finds the spot smeared with it and
delivers its deadly bite."

"Good heaven! How horrible! And you mean to tell me----"

"That they employed one of those deadly reptiles in this case? Yes, Sir
Henry. I suspected it the very moment I smelt the odour of the coriander
and sassafras, but I suspected that an animal or a reptile of some kind
was at the bottom of the mystery at a prior period. That is why I wanted
the flour. Look! Do you see where I sifted it over this spot near the
Patagonian plant? And do you see those serpentine tracks through the
middle of it? The Mynga Worm is there in that box, at the roots of that
plant. Now see!"

He caught up a horse blanket, spread it on the floor, lifted the box and
plant, set them down in the middle of it and, with a quick gathering up
of the ends of the blanket, converted it into a bag and tied it round
with a hitching strap.

"Get spades, forks, anything, and dig a hole outside in the paddock," he
went on. "Make a deep hole, a yard deep at the least--then get some
straw, some paraffin, turpentine, anything that will burn furiously and
quickly, and we will soon finish the little beast."

The servants flew to obey, and when the hole was dug, he carried the bag
out and lowered it carefully into it, covered it with straw, drenched
this with a gallon or more of lamp oil, and rapidly applied a match to
it and sprang back.

A moment later those who were watching saw a small black snake make an
ineffectual effort to leap out of the blazing mass, fall back into the
flames, and disappear forever.

* * * * *

"The method of procedure?" said Cleek, answering the baronet's query as
the latter was pouring out what he called "a nerve settler" prior to
following the Rev. Ambrose's example and going to bed. "Very cunning,
and yet very, very simple, Sir Henry. Bucarelli made a practice, as I
saw this evening, of helping the chosen watcher to make his bed on the
floor in front of the door to the steel room, but during the time he was
removing the blankets from the cupboard his plan was to smear them with
the coriander and sassafras and so arrange the top blanket