slender legs beneath her, her slender body leaning upon one rounded,
white arm. Great masses of dead-black hair fell about her glowing
shoulders, half covering the arm which supported her. Her other hand
clasped her knee. Her dark eyes were gazing before her toward the trunk
of the oak. The stranger felt that she knew that he was there; and yet
she had not looked at him.

On the bole of the oak was a squirrel. It was motionless, as though
carved out of the trunk itself. Beneath it lay coiled a snake. Its eyes
were fastened upon those of the squirrel and its flat, ugly head was
moving gently to and fro--to and fro--the while its forked tongue played
back and forth between its fangs.

They waited there, the stranger and the naked girl. They waited for a
long, long time....

By and by the squirrel moved a little. One forefoot crept slowly down the
bark of the oak--and then the other--the one hind foot--and then its
mate.... And the squirrel was nearer to the snake.

Again they waited, the stranger and the naked girl.... The squirrel crept
yet further down the trunk, toward the slow-shifting venomous head....

The horse snorted.... The squirrel raised its head; and darted up the
tree trunk. It was gone. And the snake slid noiselessly off into the
underbrush.... The naked girl turned dark, deep eyes upon the stranger.
She seemed not to mind her nakedness. And to him it seemed not strange
that she should not. The horror of it all was deep within him. He
murmured, beneath his breath: