There, crouched upon the floor in one corner, all in a little heap,
pale, tumbling and terrified, was Anita. Before her, squirming along
over the sand-scrubbed floor, evidently disabled by a blow, was an
enormous black-snake.

It was creeping away instead of toward Anita, leaving a faint trail of
crimson in its wake; yet the young girl's face was blanched with fear.

"You screamed at that?" demanded Redburn, pointing to the coiling
serpent.

"Ugh! yes; it is horrible."

"But, it is harmless. See: some one has given it a blow across the
back, and it is disabled for harm."

Anita looked up into his handsome face, wonderingly.

"I guv et a rap across the spinal column, when I kim into the valley,"
said General Nix, thrusting his head in at the door, a ludicrous grin
elongating his grisly features. "'Twar a-goin' ter guv me a yard or so
uv et's tongue, more or less--consider'bly less of more than more of
less--so I jest salivated it across ther back, kerwhack!"

Anita screamed again as she saw the General, he was so rough and
homely.

"Who are you?" she managed to articulate as Redburn assisted her to
rise from the floor. "What are you doing here, where you were not
invited?"