death lurks in brilliant tints. Where painted
fruit hangs temptingly, where great, silky blossoms exhale alluring
scent, where the elaps coils inlaid with scarlet, black, and saffron,
where in the shadow of a palmetto frond a succession of velvety black
diamonds mark the rattler's swollen length, there death is; and his
invisible consort, horror, creeps where the snake whose mouth is lined
with white creeps--where the tarantula squats, hairy, motionless;
where a bit of living enamel fringed with orange undulates along a
mossy log.

Thinking of these things, and watchful lest, unawares, terror unfold
from some blossoming and leafy covert, I scarcely noticed the beauty
of the glade we had entered--a long oval, cross-barred with sunshine
which fell on hedges of scrub-palmetto, chin high, interlaced with
golden blossoms of the jasmine. And all around, like pillars
supporting a high green canopy above a throne, towered the silvery
stems of palms fretted with pale, rose-tinted lichens and hung with
draperies of grape-vine.

"This is the place," said Professor Farrago.

His quiet, passionless voice sounded strange to me; his words seemed
strange, too, each one heavily weighted with hidden meaning.

We set the cage on the ground; he unlocked and opened the steel-barred
door, and, kneeling, carefully arranged the pies along the centre of
the cage.

"I have a curious presentiment," he said, "that I shall not come out
of this experiment unscathed."

"Don't, for Heaven's sake, say that!" I broke out, my nerves on edge
again.

"Why not?" he asked, surprised. "I am not afraid."

"Not afraid to die?" I demanded, exasperated.

"Who spoke of dying?" he inquired, mildly. "What I said was that I do
not expect to come out of this affair unscathed."

I did not comprehend his meaning, but I understood the reproof
conveyed.

He closed and locked the cage door again and came towards us,
balancing the key across the palm of his hand.

Miss Barrison had seated herself on the leaves; I stood back as the
professor sat down beside her; then, at a gesture from him, took the
place he indicated on his left.

"Before we begin," he said, calmly, "there are several things you
ought to know and which I have not yet told you. The first concerns
the feminine wearing apparel which Mr. Gilland brought me."

He turned to Miss Barrison and asked her whether she had brought a
complete outfit, and she opened the bundle on her knees and handed i