lected with a start what Edwards had told me--that the
real Sir Digby Kemsley, an invalid, had died of snake-bite in mysterious
circumstances, in Peru; and that his friend, a somewhat shady Englishman
named Cane, had been suspected of placing the reptile near him, owing to
the shouts of terror of the doomed man being overheard by a Peruvian
man-servant.

Was it possible that the man whom I had known as Digby was actually Cane?

The method of the snake was the same as that practised at Huacho!

These, and other thoughts, flashed across my brain in an instant, for I
knew that the agony of a fearful death would be quickly upon me.

I tried to utter a curse upon those three brutes who stood looking on
without raising a hand to save me, but still I could not speak.

Suddenly, something black shot across my startled eyes. The reptile had
darted.

The horror of that moment held me transfixed.

I felt a sharp sting upon my left cheek, and next instant, petrified by a
terror indescribable, I lost consciousness.

What happened afterwards I have no idea. I can only surmise.

How long I remained senseless I cannot tell. All I am aware of is that
when I returned to a knowledge of things about me I had a feeling that my
limbs were benumbed and cramped. Against my head was a cold, slimy wall,
and my body was lying in water.

For a time, dazed as I was, I could not distinguish my position. My
thoughts were all confused; all seemed pitch darkness, and the silence
was complete save for the slow trickling of water somewhere near my head.

I must have lain there a full hour, slowly gathering my senses. The back
of my head was very sore, for it seemed as though I had received a heavy
blow, while my elbows and knees seemed cut and bruised.

In the close darkness I tried to discover where I was, but my brain was
swimming with an excruciating pain in the top of my skull.

Slowly, very slowly, recollections of the past came back to
me--remembrance of that terrible, final half-hour.

Yes, Joy! I was still alive; the loathsome reptile's fang had not
produced death. It may have bitten some object and evacuated its venom
just prior to biting me. That was the theory which occurred to me, and I
believe it to be the correct one.

I could raise my hand, too. I was no longer paralysed. I could speak. I
shouted, but my voice seemed deadened and stifled.

On feeling my head I found that I had a long scalp-wound, upon which the
blood was