A thrilling suspicion was becoming certainty in his mind.
"When did you feel that bite ?" he asked.
"At the moment I landed on my feet.

What a dreadful poison it is! I can feel it all through my body; and don't you see that my ankle has begun to swell ?" Fred continued to study the wound, pressing his finger around it and bending close to the limb.

Had the hurt been caused by the fang of a serpent he would have tried to suck out the venom.

Suddenly he looked up with glowing face.
"Now, Jack, my dear fellow, don't be frightened; you haven't been bitten at all." "What do you mean ?" "At the moment you landed on your feet I was beating the life out of the snake, and he was giving his whole attention to me.

He did not try to bite you till you turned about and began striking at him." "But what made that wound ?" asked Jack.
"I suspect the cause." He drew up the legging and examined the part that covered the spot in the ankle which had received the blow.
"There! I knew it! That's what did it!" He had plucked out a small, needle-pointed thorn.