A PUFF-ADDER 



a moment watching us as I supposed, then there was 

 a loud report, followed by a cloud of dust, which 

 seemed to drive right into my face. The monkey 

 and I sprang into the air together, and it would be hard 

 to say which was the more surprised. As the dust 

 cleared away I saw that Clark was pointing at some- 

 thing thick and brown which was squirming and 

 twisting on the ground a bare couple of feet from 

 where I had been sitting. Then I understood the 

 reason for that revolver shot, and I do not mind 

 confessing that I went cold all over. It was a 

 puff-adder, one of the most venomous of all Africa's 

 many detestable reptiles. Clark, standing above me, 

 had just caught sight of it watching me. 



The monkey saw that squirming horror at the same 

 moment that I did. An instant later he was out of 

 my arms and up a tree, alternately swearing and 

 screaming with fright. Even a man's hatred of a snake 

 is a mere nothing to that which a monkey feels. I 

 do not understand the monkey tongue, but I am 

 perfectly certain that what that monkey was saying 

 would never pass the proof-reader, were I able to set 

 it down. 



I have been told that puff-adders are responsible 

 for more deaths amongst human beings than any 

 other species of African snakes. I can quite believe 

 it. They have a wholly abominable trick of finding 

 their way into huts and hiding amongst the blankets. 



127 



