hed its legs, and looked up at the two men,
betraying no fear of them. Then it lifted its sharp nose into the air,
sniffed, and pattered about the room, stopping to smell the legs of the
dressing-table and a cap of Dermot's lying on the floor. It investigated
several rat-holes at the bottom of the walls and approached the bed. Under
it a pair of the soldier's slippers were lying. The mongoose, passing by
them, turned to smell them. Suddenly it sprang back, leaping a couple of
feet into the air. When it touched the floor it crouched with bared teeth,
the hair on its back bristling and its tail fluffed out until it was bigger
than the body of the fierce little animal.

"By Jove, it has found something!" exclaimed Barclay.

The two men leant forward and watched intently. The mongoose approached the
slippers again in a series of bounds, jumped around them, crouched, and
then sprang into the air again.

Suddenly there was a rush and a scurry. The mongoose had pounced on one
slipper and was shaking it savagely, beating it on the floor, rolling over
and over and leaping into the air with it. Its movements were so rapid that
for a few moments the watchers could distinguish nothing in the miniature
cyclone of slipper and ball of fluffy hair inextricably mingled. Then there
was a pause. The mongoose stood still, then backed away with stiffened
legs, its sharp teeth fixed in the neck of a small snake about ten inches
long, which it was trying to drag out of the slipper.

"Good heavens! This is worse than last night," cried Barclay. "It's a
_karait_."

This reptile is almost more poisonous than a cobra, and, as it is thin and
rarely exceeds twelve inches in length, it can hide anywhere and is an even
deadlier menace in a house.

The mongoose backed across the room, dragging the snake and with it the
slipper.

"Why the deuce doesn't it pull the _karait_ out?" said Dermot, bending down
to look more closely, as the mongoose paused. "By George! Look at this,
Barclay. The snake's fastened to the inside of the slipper by a loop and a
bit of thin wire."

"What a devilish trick!" cried Barclay.

"Well, I hope that concludes the entertainment for tonight," said Dermot.
"Enough is as good as a feast."

When next morning the servant brought in his tray, Dermot was smoking a
cigarette in an easy chair, and he fancied that there was a scared
expression in the man's eyes, as the fellow looked covertly at the slippers
on the Major's f