By chance the bullet struck it at the junction of the vertebrae with the head, and killed it instantly.

It was a well-marked specimen, and, except for the small wound the bullet had made, quite uninjured.

He picked it up, and hung it across the saddle, intending to take it home and preserve it.
"Galloping along, glancing down every now and again at the huge, hideous thing swaying and writhing in front of him almost as if still alive, a brilliant idea occurred to him.

He would use this dead reptile to cure his wife of her fear of living ones.

He would fix matters so that she should see it, and think it was alive, and be terrified by it; then he would show her that she had been frightened by a mere dead thing, and she would feel ashamed of herself, and be healed of her folly.