THE WILD AVENGERS. 
(ae deadly mamba lay on the sandy ground 
in the scorching sun, all silent and still. 
It looked like a whip of plaited green grass, or 
a vine torn down by some passing elephant. 
It was nothing so innocent as any whip, 
though. It was a snake—the most venomous 
snake I know. 
It appeared to be wide awake, staring— 
staring in that glassy, hateful, soulless way 
snakes have—at everything or just nothing at 
all, As a matter of fact, though, I think it 
must have been asleep—only, having no eye- 
lids, it could not very well shut its eyes—else 
why should it, the quickest of all the snake 
people to rush to cover, have been surprised 
and trodden upon by the black-backed jackal 
who was racing along with two other repro- 
bates on the track of a wounded antelope 
fawn ? 
There was a streak, as if some one had 
cracked a whip between the low-built animal’s 
legs; the jackal jumped exactly one yard, and 
said, ‘Ki! ya-ya!’ and the mamba was half- 
way to the nearest tree, and before you could 
more than gasp, the foliage had swallowed it. 
The jackal ran fifty yards, coughed, and sat 
