could kill me any
time it wished, but deliberately refraining from the death-stroke.

"With one leap I was in the middle of my bed, and when a squad of
bellboys came running in response to the frantic call for help I
telephoned, they found me crouched against the headboard, almost wild
with fear.

"They turned the room completely inside out, rolling back the rugs,
probing into chairs and sofa, emptying the bureau drawers, even taking
down the towels from the bathroom rack, but nowhere was there any sign
of the water moccasin that had terrified me. At the end of fifteen
minutes' search they accepted half a dollar each and went grinning
from the room. I knew it would be useless to appeal for help again,
for I heard one whisper to another as they paused outside my door: 'It
ain't right to let them Yankees loose in N'Orleans; they don't know
how to hold their licker.'

* * * * *

"I didn't take a train next morning. Somehow, I'd an idea--crazy as it
seemed--that my promise to myself and the sudden, inexplicable
appearance of the snake beside my foot were related in some way. Just
after luncheon I thought I'd put the theory to a test.

"'Well,' I said aloud, 'I guess I might as well start packing. Don't
want to let the sun go down and find me here----'

"My theory was right. I hadn't finished speaking when I heard the
warning hiss, and there, poised ready for the stroke, the snake was
coiled before the door. And it was no phantom, either, no figment of
an overwrought imagination. It lay upon a rug the hotel management had
placed before the door to take the wear of constant passage from the
carpet, and I could see the high pile of the rug crushed down beneath
its weight. It was flesh and scales--and fangs!--and it coiled and
threatened me in my twelfth-floor room in the bright sunlight of the
afternoon.

"Little chills of terror chased each other up my back, and I could
feel the short hairs on my neck grow stiff and scratch against my
collar, but I kept myself in hand. Pretending to ignore the loathsome
thing, I flung myself upon the bed.

"'Oh, well,' I said aloud, 'there really isn't any need of hurrying. I
promised Julie that I'd come to her tonight, and I mustn't disappoint
her." Half a minute later I roused myself upon my elbow and glanced
toward the door. The snake was gone.

"'Here's a letter for you, Mr. Minton,' said the desk clerk as I
paused to leave my key. The note was