I saw that he wiped a hand across his forehead; and I did the same. Though I was splashed all over with the water from the pool, a great sweat had broken out upon me, and I experienced, in quick succession, alternate sensations of extreme heat and cold.
Vasco seized Bannister by an arm.
"We go away!" he cried, in broken English. "We go now! It is no good stay here."
The man turned back into the Wood as if he would retreat by the way we had come; but Bannister called him back.
"Not that way," said he, in Spanish. "It is but a little way from here to the end of the Wood, and we can pass round to the north across open country. I know a way to the south of the morass."
We were under Bannister's orders. And thankful we were that we had such a man to follow. We knew there was an urgent need to go back to Rushby as quickly as we might.
We were obliged to pass round the pool, and this brought us to within a few yards of the great body of the snake.
"I never knew," said Bannister, "that such a monster could exist. He must be over thirty feet in length. But, come; we can do nothing here."
In single file, as before, we followed him, and presently came forth into the open air upon the skirting of the Wood.
There we regarded one another in shocked surprise; for the faces of us all were white, and Vasco was still trembling. We said nothing; not a word passed between us; but we all breathed deeply, like men who had been for a long time under water.