movement of his finger is sufficient to control it."

"Why did you adopt a pet so terrible?" I asked.

"To secure isolation," he answered. "He's an object of
terror to intruders, and a source of delight to us."

"You have snakes here, too," I ventured.

"Yes, and for the same reason, But they can't harm you now.
Since you came we have killed them. They have been good
friends to me, but you were a stranger, and your life would
have been in danger every day. Years ago I procured a score
of them from the mountains of Pennsylvania and put them into
the thickets. They multiplied like rats, and so I was armed
against invasion.

"To prevent their escape I sank a screen of wire two feet
below the ground along the base of the walls; I also posted
a warning inside my gate. Long ago I began to destroy them,
and there were only a few left when you came. They were good
friends to me--excellent friends!" he repeated, rubbing his
hands with a grim smile. "For eighteen years I have been
able to carry on my work unmolested. No knowledge of what
was transpiring outside this little world has ever reached
me."

"How did you begin the work of teaching this interior
language to Rayel?" I asked.