men, just as he did when they tried to steal her ladyship. Then in my
dream I seemed to go back to bed and that beastly snake which we found
lying under the parcel in the road seemed to follow me. When I had got
to sleep again, all in the dream, there it was standing on its tail
at the end of the bed, hissing till it woke me. Then it spoke in good
English and not in African as might have been expected.

"'"Savage," it said, "get up and dress yourself and go at once and tell
his lordship to travel to Natal and find Mr. Allan Quatermain" (you may
remember that was the African gentleman's name, my lord, which, with so
many coming and going in this great house, I had quite forgotten, until
I had the dream). "Find Mr. Allan Quatermain," that slimy reptile went
on, opening and shutting its mouth for all the world like a Christian
making a speech, "for he will have something to tell him as to that
which has made a hole in his heart that is now filled with the seven
devils. Be quick, Savage, and don't stop to put on your shirt or your
tie"--I have not, my lord, as you may see. "He is shut up in the study,
but you know how to get into it. If he will not listen to you let him
look round the study and he will see something which will tell him that
this is a true dream."

"'Then the snake vanished, seeming to wriggle down the left bottom
bed-post, and I woke up in a cold sweat, my lord, and did what it had
told me.'

"Those were his very words, Quatermain, for I wrote them down afterwards
while they were fresh in my memory, and you see here they are in my
pocket-book.

"Well, I answered him, rather brusquely I am afraid, for a crazed man