He made a slight noise, as of a lizard running through the grass, but the woman took no notice.

He crept closer, and there he lay flat upon the grass within six feet of her, his figure merely a slightly darker blur against the dark blur of the earth.

Then, trusting to the woman's courage and strength of mind, he emitted a hiss very soft and low, like the warning of a serpent, half in fear and half in anger.
The woman moved a little, and looked toward the point from which the sound had come.

It might have been the formidable hiss of a coiling rattlesnake that she heard, but she felt no fear.

She was too much stunned, too near exhaustion to be alarmed by anything, and she did not look a second time.