kicked again'
one as was lying asleep, and before I knew it a'most there was a sharp
grab, and a pinch at my leg, with a kind of pricking feeling; and as I
gave a sort of a jump, I see a long bit of snake just going into a hole
under some stones, and he gave a rattle as he went.

"`Did he bite you?' says Sam.

"`Oh, just a bit of a pinch,' I says. `Not much. It won't hurt me.'

"`You're such a tough un,' says Sam, by way of pleasing me, and being a
bit pleased, I very stupidly said,--`yes, I am, old fellow, regular
tough un,' and we tramped on, for I'd made up my mind that I wouldn't
take no more notice of it than I would of the sting of a fly."

"Keep a good look-out all round, Joses," said Bart, interrupting him.

"That's what I am doing, Master Bart, with both eyes at once. I won't
let nothing slip."

In fact, as they walked on, Joses' eyes were eagerly watching on either
side, nothing escaping his keen sight; for frontier life had made him,
like the savages, always expecting danger at every turn.

"Well, as I was a saying," he continued, "the bite bothered me, but I
wasn't going to let Sam see that I minded the least bit in the world,
but all at once it seemed to me as if I was full of little strings that
ran from all over my body down into one leg, and that something had hold
of one end of 'em, and kept giving 'em little pulls and jerks. Then I
looked at Sam to see if he'd touched me, and his head seemed to have
swelled 'bout twice as big as it ought to be, and his eyes looked wild
and strange.

"`What's matter, mate?' I says to him, and there was such a ding in my
ears that when I spoke to him, Master Bart, my voice seemed to come from
somewhere else very far off, and to sound just like a whisper.

"`What's the matter with you?' he says, and taking hold of me, he gave
me a shake. `Here, come on,' he says. `You must run.'

"And then he tried to make me run, and I s'pose I did part of the time,
but everything kept getting thick and cloudy, and I didn't know a bit
where I was going nor what was the matter till, all at once like, I was
lying down somewhere, and the master was pouring something down my
throat. Then I felt him seeming to scratch my leg as if he was trying
to make it bleed, and then I didn't know any more about it till I found
I was being walked up and down, and every now and then some one give me
a drink of water as I thought, till the master told me afterwards that
it was whisky. Th