fine, therefore, Lady Arabella wanted the general belief to be that there
was no snake of the kind in Diana's Grove. For my own part, I don't
believe in a partial liar--this art does not deal in veneer; a liar is a
liar right through. Self-interest may prompt falsity of the tongue; but
if one prove to be a liar, nothing that he says can ever be believed.
This leads us to the conclusion that because she said or inferred that
there was no snake, we should look for one--and expect to find it, too.

"Now let me digress. I live, and have for many years lived, in
Derbyshire, a county more celebrated for its caves than any other county
in England. I have been through them all, and am familiar with every
turn of them; as also with other great caves in Kentucky, in France, in
Germany, and a host of other places--in many of these are tremendously
deep caves of narrow aperture, which are valued by intrepid explorers,
who descend narrow gullets of abysmal depth--and sometimes never return.
In many of the caverns in the Peak I am convinced that some of the
smaller passages were used in primeval times as the lairs of some of the
great serpents of legend and tradition. It may have been that such
caverns were formed in the usual geologic way--bubbles or flaws in the
earth's crust--which were later used by the monsters of the period of the
young world. It may have been, of course, that some of them were worn
originally by water; but in time they all found a use when suitable for
living monsters.

"This brings us to another point, more difficult to accept and understand
than any other requiring belief in a base not usually accepted, or indeed
entered on--whether such abnormal growths could have ever changed in
their nature. Some day the study of metabolism may progress so far as to
enable us to accept structural changes proceeding from an intellectual or
moral base. We may lean towards a belief that great animal strength may