vines the neck and head of a second black- 

 snake. 



He was coming swiftly, evenly, carrying his 

 gleaming head over a foot from the ground, and 

 following hard upon the trail of the first snake. 

 He hit very near the smooth, flowing mark in 

 the dust of the lane. Here she had crossed. 

 Here he was about to cross when he caught 

 sight of me. 



For a startled instant he stiffened, threw him- 

 self on the defensive, and showed a white patch 

 under his chin, an ugly, blazing light in his eye, 

 and a peculiarly aggressive attitude that there 

 was no mistaking. I had seen this snake before. 

 I knew him. He was the dragon of the swale. 



Only pausing, he whirled, struck the track, 

 and sped on, his round black body stretching 

 from rut to rut of the lane. A hundred feet 

 beyond in the grass I saw his glittering head 

 rise and sway with a swimming motion as he 

 trailed the long, lithe beauty that was leading 

 him this lightning race across the fields. 



This was not the last time he crossed my path. 

 He never withstood me again ; but he thwarted 

 me several times. Once as I was descending the 

 [157] 



