The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-07-31

echoed horribly tnrOugh tne room. And
then there was a great silence through
the dark stateroom. Caithness told me
afterward that he saw two feet of my
six feet of George Tashington's acres
shake.
For fully five minutes not one Of us
spoke a living word, but I tell you
three heads and three white faces bent
over that plate.
The snake was lying in torpor-as
the shadowgraph revealed. 1t was about
2 feet in length, but 90 in utter loath-
someness. In its long curving drowsi-
pess it looked like the long. oozing.
reaching finger Of death, from which
you could upbuild the whole gaunt
ringed and moving body of the dread
shadow. The broad head, fiattened
down against the casing Of the girdle.
would lift at any impulse of serpentine
volition. You felt it. ! saw Caithness
himself, officer in the glorious South
Staffordshire as he is, start back q mo
ment from that girdle and it's Internal
lining. The thin, lightning streak of
tongue protruded. Above each eye Of
the snake arose a scaly spine or horn,
whence its name, horned viper. The
eyes were half closed, but watched you
with a leer.
"Jovel' from Caithness. And then
o of US spoke, but 1 tell you we
bent over again and watched that Cir
dies double, and the leer of eye watch
ed us.
/ read it all now. The dumb, beseech-
ing look in my lady's face like the cry
of a wounded animal-to save her from
the leprous leap of that calculating eye.
And again that changing face of hers
the contemplating self murderer, was
it not? The CLASSY look that begins to
reflect the slippery precipices Of the fall
and clutch and fall again of a soul,
while the banks of the abyss are dap
pied with its doom. And then the men,
DRY of the coils of ascending brilliance
in those ey.5s Of hers, rising in ringed
beauty, deepening in power in the deep
ening power Of the waltz whorls which
the band tossed off. Was she slowly,
surely and surely slipping into the
snake charm of snake life? Resisting
today, bound to succumb tomorrow?
Bahl How could l think it? For--mem-
DRY of memories that sent q big manly
heart throb to my very throat and made
my temples beat like trip hammers, that
one moment when her life b1eathed up
Oh my arm, and we moved metrically
on the pulse of music, when through
the lotus moonlight u eyes arose to
one another and spoke forever.
"Hello! What are you thinking
about?" says Caithness, breaking into
the silence. Look out, man. You'll
kick the lantern over"
"Also. Now, what to do, gentle
men?" demanded the professor, staring
down at the shadowgraph of leer that
stared up at him and stared at us all,
though fixed upon one. II fear it is
very sad. l know the horned viper.
meet him in Africa. Also. He can live
two years in a glass jar without to eat.
He endures prolonged hunger. What to
do, gentlemen"
"What in earth does the woman want
with it?" says Caithness. "The mys-
terry thickens. To kill herself or some
body else?"
Somebody elsey' I sneered. And
yet his words made me start.
Well, the thing is what to do with
it," says Caithness, tipping back in his
chair. "lt will be out on us if you
don't take care. The lock, you know, is
not secured at the aperture for breath. u
drop him overheard just now,'
says the professor, preparing to take uI
the girdle. The leer looked at him. The
professor moved quickly toward the
portfolio.
Hold up" 1 cried, Selling his arm.
"Ill chaperon that snake"
"Dillons, you are an immortal ass, y
shouted Caithness. you'll repent this.
For Gods sake overheard with it into
the immortal sea. Save the woman and
save yourself"
Il have a purpose in keeping it,"
said coolly. I caught again upon the
plate the snakely, ~gargoylean leer. SAL
low me, Herr Doktor." I reached over
the professors arm, and I took that CIR
die. Did it ooze just one hairs breadth
forward? 1t required no very lively i'm
agination to feel the leprous death
spring, and the stream through the
tubular canals of the Intervals fangs,
and then the dazing, dizzy torment
overtakes your manhood's life. But
moved toward the stateroom door.
"By heaven, hold up!' shouts Gath
ness, now gripping hold of the profess
or's arm. Doctor, it's the braves
thing I've seen done since Jimmie Fad
den planked the union jack on Majub'
hill in the teeth of Zulu arrows tipped
with the poison of the puff adder. BY
heaven, Britain honors the bravei Wha'
the devil is your intention, Dillons? Lee
him go, doctor. l know billions eye
He has a plan. But let's all shake hand
on this n point, Well stand by my
Lady Jemappes and garner her tremen
dous secret through the thick and thil
of it all. She's not to blame, 1 feel"
God bless a mani Give me a nan
and not a woman, every big, grand incl
of him, to stand by a woman!
"I'n be with you anon, Dillons,"
heard Caithness call.
] tell you, it did not take me very
long to reach my stateroom. I dared
not trife with that girdle, ever though
my plan of action was formulated il
my own brain. Again the sharp. whit
electric thrill moved over me. Had thu
creature contained within that belt tn,
oower Of emitting Internal magnetismp