He wriggled a moment, and then
stretched himself out at full length, dead.
One of the larger ones was within twenty-five feet of him, and he used his
repeating rifle this time. He slipped a little in his perch as he
discharged the piece, and the ball went through the snake's body, which was
furiously mad, hissed and shook himself. He held still a moment, and then
Felix fired again. The ball seemed to tear his head all to pieces, and he
dropped down out of sight. He had to fire several times to kill the other
two; for, as he expressed it, they "would not hold still."
But he had killed the four, and felt just as though he had settled the
snake question. Most of the natives, who are oftener the victims of the
cobra than the white people, go about in the dark with naked feet, and it
is not strange that they are bitten. He descended from the tree, and went
to examine the game he had brought down. Cutting some pliable sticks, he
dragged the serpents together, and passed a withe around them behind the
hood, and started back for the rendezvous where they were to take the
carriage. He was determined to convince Scott that he was not afraid of
snakes.
He had already heard several shots, and realized that his companions had
found game of some kind. He waited a full hour for them, when Louis
returned first, with a very handsome deer slung on a pole with Khayrat
carrying the other end.
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