Tales from the Veld

“Is it injured?” he kept on crying.

“Injured be blowed,” growled Si Amos; “it’ll be injured sharp enough if the old man’s hurt.”

“Who said I was hurt,” said Abe suddenly, sitting up and feeling his body. “I’m all right; but, boys, my sakes, you’ll never b’lieve me, never!”

“What’s happened? Are you all right? Sure?”

Abe slowly rose and felt himself. “Yes. You listen,” he said, solemnly. “The stranger’s right about them snakes – dead right.”

“It’s no time to joke,” said the stranger, looking ruefully at the bent spokes and twisted handle bar.

“You’re right there; no man would joke who’s jest escaped from death. No, sir; I tell you, jes’ as I came to this yer bend I looked out for the snake, but instead of the snake I seed – and my heart jumped into my throat at the sight – a thick rope stretched right across the road from the bank on this side to the tree on the other, raised about two feet from the level. The next instant I went smash into it.”

“Who could have done that trick?” said Long Jim, with a dangerous look.

“The snake,” said Abe, with a croak.

“The snake!”

“Yessir. I seed the glisten of his scales jes’ as I went flying into the bush.”

“The snake!” said the stranger. “Absurd! Rot!”

“It were the snake – the friend of the crittur you hurt,” said Abe with a groan. “You see as I allow he were determined to have revenge, and when he heard the bell he hitched his jaw to that root hanging down the bank, and he stretched his tail round the bough of that tree on the other side. A twenty-foot rock snake he were. I guess he’s got the stomach-ache from the hit I give him.”

For a moment there was intense silence as the boys grasped the situation, then they laughed till they sat down.

“Whatjer laughing at?” said Abe, solemnly, though his lips twitched either with fun or pain.

The stranger smiled sadly, then he laughed too. “Old man,” he said, “let us shake again. You have beaten me. I confess I was lying, and you have taken a strong measure to punish me.”

“You was lying!” said Abe, opening his eyes and looking the picture of astonishment. “Then why did that durned snake upset me?”

Then he fell back in a swoon, for he had been sore hurt – and we carried him to the nearest homestead, while Si Amos rode furiously for a Doctor, and Long Jim went about on tip-toe from the room to the door and back in a state of restless anxiety.

The End.