Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Witness for the Defense by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
page 58 of 301 (19%)
extreme fear, not at the despatch-box but at the space of carpet--a
couple of feet at the most--between the despatch-box and the tent-wall.
His fingers felt along the ledge of the bureau and closed with a silent
grip upon the handle of the riding-crop. Thresk jumped to the natural
conclusion: a snake had crept in under the tent-wall and Ballantyne dared
not move lest the snake should strike. Neither did he dare to move
himself. Ballantyne was clearly within reach of its fangs. But he looked
and--there was nothing. The light was not good certainly, and down by the
tent-wall there close to the floor it was shadowy and dim. But Thresk's
eyes were keen. The space between the despatch-box and the wall was
empty. Nothing crawled there, nothing was coiled.

Thresk looked at Ballantyne with amazement; and as he looked Ballantyne
sprang from his chair with a scream of terror--the scream of a
panic-stricken child. He sprang with an agility which Thresk would never
have believed possible in a man of so gross a build. He leapt into the
air and with his crop he struck savagely once, twice and thrice at the
floor between the wall and the box. Then he turned to Thresk with every
muscle working in his face.

"Did you see?" he cried. "Did you see?"

"What? There was nothing to see!"

"Nothing!" screamed Ballantyne. He picked up the box and placed it on the
table, thrusting it under Thresk's hand. "Hold that! Don't let go! Stay
here and don't let go," he said, and running up the tent raised his voice
to a shout.

"Baram Singh!" and lifting the tent-door he called to others of his
DigitalOcean Referral Badge