ose shining folds, followed by a sound
as of bones being ground up in a steam-driven mortar.

"I staggered against the wall of the cave and shut my eyes for a moment,
for I felt faint. When I opened them again it was to see something flat,
misshapen, elongated like a reflection in a spoon, something that had
been Savage lying on the floor, and stretched out over it the huge
serpent studying me with its steely eyes. Then I ran; I am not ashamed
to say I ran out of that horrible hole and far into the night."

"Small blame to you," I said, adding: "Hans, give me some square-face
neat." For I felt as queer as though I also had been in that cave with
its guardian.

"There is very little more to tell," went on Ragnall after I had drunk
the hollands. "I lost my way on the mountain-side and wandered for many
hours, till at last I blundered up against one of the outermost houses
of the town, after which things were easy. Perhaps I should add that
wherever I went on my way down the mountain it seemed to me that I heard
people laughing at me in an unnatural kind of voice. That's all."

After this we sat silent for a long while, till at length Hans said in
his unmoved tone:

"The light has come, Baas. Shall I blow out the candle, which it is a
pity to waste? Also, does the Baas wish me to cook the breakfast, now
that the snake devil is making his off Bena, as I hope to make mine off
him before all is done. Snakes are very good to eat, Baas, if you know
how to dress them in the Hottentot way."

CHAPTER XVI

HANS STEALS THE KEYS

A few hours later some of the White Kendah arrived at the house and very
politely delivered to us Ragnall's and poor Savage's guns and pistols,
which they said they had found lying in the grass on the mountain-side,
and with them the bull's-eye lantern that Ragnall had thrown away in his
flight; all of which articles I accepted without comment. That evening
also Harut called and, after salutations, asked where Bena was as he did
not see him. Then my indignation broke out:

"Oh! white-bearded father of liars," I said, "you know well that he is
in the belly of the serpent which lives in the cave of the mountain."

"What, Lord!" exclaimed Harut addressing Ragnall in his peculiar
English, "have you been for walk up to hole in hill? Suppose Bena want
see big snake. He always very fond of snake, you know, and they very
fond of him. You 'member how they come out of his pocket in your house
in Englan