But she
wouldn't even look at me--just lay face down--heaving and sobbing.

Now I don't like little creatures that snap--so when I picked her up it
was by the scruff of the neck. She had to face me then, and I saw that
in spite of all the sobbing her eyes were perfectly dry. That struck me
as curious. I examined them through a pocket magnifying-glass, and
discovered that they had no tear-ducts. Of course she couldn't cry.
Perhaps I squeezed the back of her neck harder than I meant to--anyway,
her lips began to draw back and her teeth to show.

It was exactly at that second that I recalled the legend Graves had told
me about the island woman being found dead, and all black and swollen,
back there in the grass, with teeth marks on her that looked as if they
had been made by a very little child.

I forced Bo's mouth wide open and looked in. Then I reached for a candle
and held it steadily between her face and mine. She struggled furiously
so that I had to put down the candle and catch her legs together in my
free hand. But I had seen enough. I felt wet and cold all over. For if
the swollen glands at the base of the deeply grooved canines meant
anything, that which I held between my hands was not a woman--but a
snake.

I put her in a wooden box that had contained soap and nailed slats over
the top. And, personally, I was quite willing to put scrap-iron in the
box with her and fling it overboard. But I did not feel quite justified
without consulting Graves.

As an extra precaution in case of accidents, I overhauled my
medicine-chest and made up a little package for the breast pocket--a
lancet, a rubber bandage, and a pill-box full of permanganate crystals.
I had still much collecting to do, "back there in the grass," and I did
not propose to step on any of Bo's cousins or her sisters or her
aunts--without having some of the elementary first-aids to the
snake-bitten handy.

It was a lovely starry night, and I determined to sleep on deck. Before
turning in I went to have a look at Bo. Having nailed her in a box
securely, as I thought, I must have left my cabin door ajar. Anyhow she
was gone. She must have braced her back against one side of the box, her
feet against the other, and burst it open. I had most certainly
underestimated her strength and resources.

The crew, warned of peril, searched the whole schooner over, slowly and
methodically, lighted by lanterns. We could not find her. Well, swimming
comes natural t