dly.

"The young ladies need have no fear," he returned politely, as he
touched his white helmet.

But, as the girls passed on, he detained the Captain with a wink. "I
see you know," he whispered, "but don't be worried. We've just been
the rounds and killed three, and I don't believe any more will trouble
us to-day. Just keep your eyes open, though, for they make the
ninety-sixth this season. We'll soon get it up to the century mark;
but it isn't like it used to be, when four and five hundred made the
yearly score." His tone was positively regretful, though he referred
to the cobra, deadliest of serpents, and the curse of every bright bit
of glade and forest in India. It crawls out from its holes in the
caverns of this island of Elephanta, and, with the miasma just as
deadly that rises from the swamps, makes any residence upon its
lovely-seeming hillsides a constant menace. But where will not people
stay if prompted by self-interest? The dwellers on the sides of
Vesuvius do not lie awake to wait for its eruption, and the dwellers on
Elephanta do not step any more gingerly in their bare feet because at
any moment a sting may end their career.

If "Death stalketh abroad at noonday," we always imagine he is on his
way to some other fireside; ours is not to be invaded.

But the captain needed no warning. He had seen to it that the girls
were thickly shod for their tramp, and he himself carried a cane with a
heavy silver top, while his eyes, trained to close observation, seldom
missed seeing what they were looking for. He soon overtook the girls,
and preceded them down the stone steps into the cavern, upon which most
of these poisonous reptiles are encountered in that special vicinity.

If one _will_ visit a region devoted to a god whose power is
represented by a hooded serpent, he should not complain at meeting the
real thing, occasionally. Elephanta is dedicated to Shiva, the
Destroyer, her attributes being imaged in the person of the cobra.

"Ugh! How gloomy!" muttered Hope, as they descended into the damp,
cool cavern, keeping close to her father, but letting her roving eyes
take in the mass of carving on every side.

"What does it all mean, papa?" asked Faith, also drawing closer.

"It is grand, and horrible!"

"Dose be gods," replied the native guide, giving her a reproachful
look. "It is one s'rine to deir memory."

"Dear me! I wouldn't want to remember them," she went on quaintly, not
notici