en to the virtuous. For presently I heard a voice which I
recognized as that of Mr. Savage, asking, not without a certain quaver
in its tone,

"Who the devil is that?"

"Me," I replied, being flustered.

"'Me' won't do," said the voice. "'Me' might be Harum or it might be
Scarum, or it might be someone worse. Who's 'Me'?"

"Allan Quatermain, you idiot," I whispered through the keyhole.

"Anna who? Well, never mind. Go away, Hanna. I'll talk to you in the
morning."

Then I kicked the door, and at length, very cautiously, Mr. Savage
opened it.

"Good heavens, sir," he said, "what are you doing here, sir? Dressed
too, at this hour, and with the handle of a pistol sticking out of your
pocket--or is it--the head of a snake?" and he jumped back, a strange
and stately figure in a long white nightshirt which apparently he wore
over his underclothing.

I entered the room and shut the door, whereon he politely handed me a
chair, remarking,

"Is it ghosts, sir, or are you ill, or is it Harum and Scarum, of whom
I have been thinking all night? Very cold too, sir, being afraid to pull
up the bedclothes for fear lest there might be more reptiles in them."
He pointed to his dress-coat hanging on the back of another chair with
both the pockets turned inside out, adding tragically, "To think, sir,
that this new coat has been a nest of snakes, which I have hated like
poison from a child, and me almost a teetotaller!"

"Yes," I said impatiently, "it's Harum and Scarum as you call them. Take
me to Lord Ragnall's bedroom at once."

"Ah! sir, burgling, I suppose, or mayhap worse," he exclaimed as he
threw on some miscellaneous garments and seized a life-preserver which
hung upon a hook. "Now I'm ready, only I hope they have left their
snakes behind. I never could bear the sight of a snake, and they seem to
know it--the brutes."

In due course we reached Lord Ragnall's room, which Mr. Savage entered,
and in answer to a stifled inquiry exclaimed,

"Mr. Allan Quatermain to see you, my lord."

"What is it, Quatermain?" he asked, sitting up in bed and yawning. "Have
you had a nightmare?"

"Yes," I answered, and Savage having left us and shut the door, I told
him everything as it is written down.

"Great heavens!" he exclaimed when I had finished. "If it had not been
for you and your intuition and courage----"

"Never mind me," I interrupted. "The question is--what should be done
now? Are you going to try to arrest these men