rses started, and would have dashed off back, but for the fact that
they were arrested by the way being blocked by the baggage animals and
Mr Burne.

As the gun was fired its report was magnified a hundredfold, and went
rolling along in a series of peals like thunder, while the faint blue
smoke rose over where Yussuf stood leaning forward and gazing at some
broken stones.

Then all at once he raised the gun again as if to fire, but lowered it
with a smile, and walked forward to spurn something with his foot, and
upon Lawrence reaching him it was to find him turning over a
black-looking serpent of about six feet long, with a short thin tail,
the body of the reptile being very thick in proportion to its length.
Upon turning it over the Muslim pointed out that it had a peculiar
reddish throat, and he declared it to be of a very poisonous kind.

"How do you know it to be poisonous?" said Mr Preston, who had, unseen
by them, risen from where he had been thrown.

"Oh, Mr Preston, are you much hurt?" cried Lawrence.

"I must say I am hurt," said the professor smiling. "A heavy man like
me cannot fall from his horse and strike his head against the stones
without suffering. But there, it is nothing serious. How do you know
that is a poisonous snake, Yussuf?"

"I have been told of people being bitten by them, effendi, and some have
died; but I should have said that it was dangerous as soon as I saw the
horse shrink from it. Animals do not generally show such horror unless
they know that there is danger."

"I don't think you are right about the horses," said the professor
quietly, "for they are terrible cowards in their way; but I think you
are right about the snake. Serpents that are formed like this, with the
thick, sluggish-looking shape, and that peculiar short tail, are mostly
venomous. Well, this one will do no more mischief, Burne."

"No. Nasty brute!" said the old lawyer, gazing down at the reptile
after coaxing his horse forward. "What are you going to do, Yussuf?"

"Make sure that it will not bite any of the faithful," said the guide
slowly; and drawing his knife he thrust the reptile into a convenient
position, and, after cutting off its head, tossed the still writhing
body to the side of the ravine.

This incident at an end, they all mounted again and rode on, Yussuf in
the middle, and Lawrence and Mr Preston, who declared himself better,
on either hand, till, at the end of about an hour, the latter