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The Man and the Snake

The reptile was of a species with which Brayton was unfamiliar. Its length he could only guess; the body at the largest visible part seemed about as thick as his arm. In what way was it dangerous if any? Was it venomous? Was it a constrictor? His knowledge of serpents did not enable him to say.

Brayton rose to his feet and prepared to back softly away from the snake, without disturbing it if possible, and through the door. He knew he could walk backwards without mistake. In the meantime the snake’s eyes burned with a more pitiless malevolence than before.

Brayton lifted his right foot to stop backwards. His hand upon the chair was grasping it. “Nonsense!” he said aloud. “I am not so great a coward as to be afraid.” He lifted his foot a little higher and put it sharply to the floor – one inch in front of the other.

He heard somewhere the continuous throbbing of a big drum with sounds of far music, sweet and beautiful, like the tones of an Aeolian harp. The music stopped; rather it became the distant roll of a retreating thunderstorm. A landscape, shining with sun and rain, lay before him, and in the middle of it a huge serpent, wearing a crown, was putting its head out of its large coils and looking at him with the eyes of his dead mother. Suddenly this enchanting landscape seemed to rise upward, like the drop scene at a theatre, and vanished. Something struck him upon the face. He had fallen to the floor; blood ran from his broken nose and lips. In a few moments he had recovered, and then realized that this fall, by interrupting his gaze, had broken the spell that held him. He felt that now if

he did not look at the snake he would be able to retreat. But the thought of the serpent within a few feet of his head, yet unseen, perhaps in the very act of springing upon him and throwing its coils about his throat was too horrible! He lifted his head, stared again into those sinister eyes, and was again in their slavery.

The snake had not moved and seemed to have lost its power over the imagination; the wonderful illusions of a few moments before were not repeated. Its black, beady eyes simply glittered with an expression unspeakably malignant. Then came a terrible scene. The man, lying upon the floor, within a yard of his enemy, raised the upper part of his body upon his elbows, his head thrown back, his legs extended to their full length. His face was white and his eyes were wide open and were staring at the snake. Strong convulsions ran through his body making almost serpentile movements. And every movement left him a little nearer to the snake.

***

Dr. Druring and his wife sat in the library. The scientist was in a very good mood.

“I have just obtained by exchange with another collector,” he said, “a splendid specimen of the ophiophagus.”

“What is it?” the lady inquired with little interest.

“Why, what profound ignorance! My dear, a man who learns after marriage that his wife does not know Greek has the right to a divorce. The ophiophagus is a snake that eats other snakes.”

“I hope it will eat all yours. But how does it get the other snakes? By charming them, I suppose?”

“That is just like you, dear,” said the doctor. “You know how irritating to me are conversations about that vulgar superstition about a snake’s power of fascination.”

The conversation was interrupted by a loud cry, which rang through the silent house like the voice of a demon screaming in a tomb! They sprang to their feet, the man confused, and the lady pale and speechless with fear. Almost before the echoes of the last cry had died away, the doctor was out of the room, springing up the stairs two steps at a time. He rushed at the door without knocking.

Brayton lay on the floor, dead. His head and arms were partly concealed under the foot of the bed. They pulled the body away, turning it upon the back. The face was covered with blood and foam; the eyes were wide open, staring… a dreadful slight!
Multiple choice questions
1. What illusions did Brayton have?
a) He saw his dead mother
b) He saw a huge crow
c) He saw an extremely large snake
b) He saw an enormous crown
2. What had that all broken?
a) Nose
b) Spell
c) Lips
d) Imagination
3. All of the following is true, except ...
а) Brayton was almost hypnotised
b) Brayton was under a spell
c) Brayton was affected by magic
d) Brayton was under the curse