an impression
of some stringed instrument thrumming somewhere at the back of the
crowd.

It all ended as unexpectedly as it had begun. The great reptile became
suddenly inert, a lifeless thing; the monotonous crooning was resumed,
proceeding as it were out of the chaos of the struggle, and round his
neck and about his body the snake-charmer wound his vanquished foe.

The moment for _backsheesh_ had arrived, and Beryl, coming suddenly out
of her absorption, felt for her purse and awoke abruptly to the
consciousness of a hand that gripped her arm.

She glanced at Fletcher, who at once slackened his hold. "Don't you give
the fellow anything," he said, with a touch of peremptoriness, "I will."

She yielded, considering the matter too trivial for argument, and
watched his rupee fall with a tinkle upon the tin plate which the
snake-charmer extended at the length of his sinewy arm.

Fletcher speedily made a way for her through the now shifting crowd; and
after a little they found the _saice_, waiting with the mare under a
tree. The animal was tormented by flies and restless. Certainly in this
valley district it was very hot.

"We will go back by the hill road," Fletcher said, as he handed her up.
"It is rather longer, but I think it is worth it. This blaze is too much
for you."

They left the thronged highroad, and turned up a rutty track leading
directly into the hills.

Their way lay between great, glaring boulders of naked rock. Here and
there tufts of grass grew beside the stony track, but they were brown
and scorched, and served only to emphasise the barrenness of the land.

For a while they drove in silence, mounting steadily the whole time.

Suddenly Fletcher spoke. "We shall come to some shade directly. There is
a belt of pine trees round the next curve."

The words were hardly uttered when unexpectedly the mare shied, struck
the ground violently with all four feet together, and bolted.

Beryl heard an exclamation from the native groom, and half-turned to see
him clinging to the back with a face of terror. She herself was more
astonished than frightened. She gripped the rail instinctively, for the
cart was jolting horribly as the mare, stretched out like a greyhound,
fled at full gallop along the stony way.

She saw Fletcher, with his feet against the board, dragging backwards
with all his strength. He was quite white, but exceedingly collected,
and she was instantly quite certain that he knew what he w