d higher, but always correspondingly clear.
More of the reptile's length towered up now. Without taking her eyes
off it, Verna saw the hand behind Denham close. Her finger pressed the
trigger. The yellow neck flung back with a quick, whip-like movement,
and there was a rustling among the herbage which told its own tale.

"Did you hit?" whispered Denham, without turning his head.

"Oh yes; you can never make any mistake about that when you're behind a
rifle. But--"

She broke off in amazement. The other had gone quite white, or at any
rate as white as his bronze sunburn would allow. He seemed aware of it
himself.

"You did it magnificently," he said, passing a hand over his eyes as
though to clear them. "You know," he went on, half in apology, half in
explanation, "that sort of thing takes it out of one. It isn't only the
musical part of it. A certain amount of magnetism, of expenditure of
force, comes in. But let's inspect the quarry."

"Careful, dearest. We'd better make sure it's quite dead. They are
frightfully venomous."

"Wherefore you want to take the lead," flinging a restraining arm around
her. "That won't do at all."

But all danger was over. Verna's bullet had severed the spinal cord.
The reptile was dead, but the muscular vitality kept its coils writhing
in a manner suggestive of lingering life. All the collector again was
uppermost in Denham as he contemplated the writhing booty. He saw it
already carefully and naturally set up in his museum.

"Can't be less than seven feet," he said, turning it about gingerly with
a stick. "But, darling, what a dead shot you are! All my best
specimens _you_ obtain for me."

"But I shouldn't have obtained this one if you hadn't kept it still in
the first instance. Alaric, you never told me you added snake-charming
to your other accomplishments. Do you know, though, if it had been
anybody else I should have thought it decidedly uncanny. Have you done
much of it?"

"Only tried it once before in my life. Then it came to me as a sudden
idea. I thought I'd experimentalise again in this instance. I happen
to be able to whistle rather above the average, so I was always careful
to keep the note clear. I had a sort of feeling that the least break
would destroy the spell at once. By the way, think there's another
anywhere about?--they say snakes go in couples."

"No, no, no!" she answered, instinctively slipping a restraining hand
beneath his ar