I snatched it away from her. I suppose I
looked as sick as I felt.

"I never know you was so brave, Jim," she
went on comfortingly. "You is just like big
mans; you wait for him lift his head and then
you go for him. Ain't you feel scared a bit?
Now we take that snake home and show every-
body. Nobody ain't seen in this kawn-tree so
big snake like you kill."

She went on in this strain until I began to
think that I had longed for this opportunity,
and had hailed it with joy. Cautiously we
went back to the snake; he was still groping
with his tail, turning up his ugly belly in the
light. A faint, fetid smell came from him, and
a thread of green liquid oozed from his crushed
head.

"Look, Tony, that's his poison," I said.

I took a long piece of string from my pocket,
and she lifted his head with the spade while I
tied a noose around it. We pulled him out
straight and measured him by my riding-
quirt; he was about five and a half feet long.
He had twelve rattles, but they were broken
off before they began to taper, so I insisted
that he must once have had twenty-four. I
explained to Antonia how this meant that he

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