Part 17 (1/2)

This done, she sat back and regarded her patient complacently.

”Just take it easy,” she counselled. ”And, whatever you do, don't worry.

You won't know you were bitten in an hour. Sip that whisky now and then.

It won't kill the poison, as some folks seem to believe, but it will make you light-hearted and you'll forget to worry. That's the part it plays in a case like this. Now if I can trust you to keep quiet and serene, I'll seek revenge.”

He nodded weakly.

She arose, and presently again came that sickening _whir-r-r-r-r-r_ miscalled a rattle, followed immediately by a vicious _thud-thud-thud_.

”There, you horrid creature!” he heard in a low, triumphant tone. ”You thought I was afraid of you, did you? Bring total collapse on all your fict.i.tious traditions and bite before you rattle, will you! _Requiescat in pace_, Mr. Showut Poche-daka!”

Half an hour afterward Oliver Drew was on his feet, but he staggered drunkenly. To this day he is not just sure whether he was intoxicated or raving from the effects of the snakebite. Anyway, as Jessamy took hold of him to steady him, his reason left him, and he swept her into his arms and kissed her lips time and again, though she struggled valiantly to free herself.

Ultimately she ducked under his arms and sprang away from him backward, her face crimson, her bosom heaving.

”Sit down again!” she ordered chokingly. ”Shame on you, to take advantage of me like that!”

”Won't sit down!” he babbled, reaching about for her blindly. ”I love you an' I'm gonta have you!”

”You're out of your head! Sit down again! Please, now.” Her tone changed to a soothing note. ”You're--I'm afraid you're drunk.”

He was groping for her, staggering toward a threatening outcropping of rock. With a rapid leap she closed in on him unexpectedly, heaved desperately to the right and left, and threw him flat on his back. Then she scrambled on top of his knees as he strove to rise again.

”Now, looky-here, mister,” she warned, ”you've gone just about far enough! In a second I'll get that bee-smoker and put you out of business. Please--please, now, be good!”

He seemed partially stunned by the fall, for he lay now without a move, eyes closed, his mind wandering dreamily. And thus he lay for half an hour longer, when he suddenly raised his head and looked at her, still propped up on his knees, with eyes that were sane.

”Golly!” he breathed.

”Golly is right,” she agreed drolly. ”Were you drunk or crazy?”

”Both, I guess. I'm--mighty sorry.” His face was red as fire.

”Do you wish to get up?”

”If you please.”

He stood on his feet. He was still weak and pale and dizzy.

”Heavens! That liquor!” he panted. ”What is it? Where did you get it?”

”At home. Old Adam gave me the flask over a year ago. It's only whisky.

I always carry a flask for just such an emergency as this. And I never go a step out of the house in the summer without my snakebite kit.

n.o.body ought to in the West.”

He shook his head. ”That's not whisky,” he said. ”I'm not exactly a stranger to the taste of whisky. That's brimstone!”