“Who’s ’em?” said Smith.
“Sarpents.”
“What, a-hissin’ like mad?”
“Ay.”
“’Tarn’t serpents, Billy, it’s some hot water holes clost by here, and every now and then they spits steam. Fust time I heerd it I thought it was a cat.”
Half an hour later all were sleeping soundly, only one having his slumber disturbed by dreams, and that was Wriggs, who had turned over on his back, and in imagination saw himself surrounded by huge snakes, all in two pieces. They rose up and hissed at him while he struggled to get away, but seemed to be held down by something invisible; but the most horrible part of his dream was that some of the serpents hissed at him with their heads, and others stood up on the part where they had been divided, and hissed at him with the points of their tails.