out as if
courageously to receive the shot, and in his uplifted hand I saw the
shining blade of a knife!

A few steps brought me close up; and in the man that stood before me I
recognised the form, and ferocious aspect of _Gabriel the Bambarra_!

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

GABRIEL THE BAMBARRA.

The huge stature of the black--his determined attitude--the sullen glare
of his lurid bloodshot eyes, set in a look of desperate resolve--the
white gleaming file-pointed teeth--rendered him a terrible object to
behold. Under other circumstances I might have dreaded an encounter
with such a hideous-looking adversary--for an _adversary_ I deemed him.
I remembered the flogging I had given him with my whip, and I had no
doubt that _he_ remembered it too. I had no doubt that he was now upon
his errand of revenge instigated partly by the insult I had put upon
him, and partly set on by his cowardly master. He had been dogging me
through the forest--all the day, perhaps--waiting for an opportunity to
execute his purpose.

But why had he run away from me? Was it because he feared to attack me
openly. Certainly it was--he feared my double-barrelled gun!

But I had been asleep. He might have approached me then--he might
have--Ha!

This ejaculation escaped my lips, as a singular thought flashed into my
mind. The Bambarra was a "snake-charmer"--I had heard so--could handle
the most venomous serpents at rail--could guide and direct them! Was it
not he who had guided the _crotalus_ to where I lay--who had caused me
to be bitten?

Strange as it may appear, this supposition at that moment crossed my
mind, and seemed probable; nay, more--I actually _believed it_. I
remembered that I had been struck with a peculiarity about the reptile--
its weird look--the superior cunning exhibited in its mode of escape--
and not less peculiar the fact of its having stung me unprovoked--a rare
thing for the rattlesnake to do! All these points rushing
simultaneously into my mind, produced the conviction that for the fatal
wound on my wrist I was indebted, not to chance, but to Gabriel the
snake-charmer!

Not half the time I have been telling you of it--not the tenth nor the
hundredth part of the time, was I in forming this horrid conviction. It
was done with the rapidity of thought--the more rapid that every
circumstance guiding to such a conclusion was fresh in my memory. In
fact the black had not changed his attitude of menace, nor I mine