If you were afraid of snakes,
why did you go up the Gampola, in Ceylon?"
"I didn't know the snakes were there," he chuckled. "I hadn't dreamed there
were a half so many snakes in the whole world as there were along that
confounded river. I slept sitting up, dressed in rubber wading boots that
came to my waist, and wore thick leather gloves. I got out of the country
at the earliest possible moment."
When they entered the edge of the Miette clearing and saw the glow of
lights ahead of them, Aldous caught the sudden upturn of his companion's
face, laughing at him in the starlight.
"Kind, thoughtful John Aldous!" she whispered, as if to herself. "How nice
of you it was to talk of such pleasant things while we were coming through
that black, dreadful swamp--with a Bill Quade waiting for us on the side!"
A low ripple of laughter broke from her lips, and he stopped dead in his
tracks, forgetting to put the automatic back in his pocket. At sight of it
the amusement died in her face. She caught his arm, and one of her hands
seized the cold steel of the pistol.
"Would he--_dare?_" she demanded.
"You can't tell," replied Aldous, putting the gun in his pocket.
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