"No, I won't. Bye-bye. I'll be back to-night."
After which exchange of greetings, Sebastian got on his horse and prepared to continue his journey to Desolada.
"By the way," he said, however, before doing so, "about that snake! How could it have got into your bed?"
"I don't know," Julian replied with a half laugh. "How should I? The coral snake is a new acquaintance, though I've known other specimens in my time. It got there somehow, didn't it?"
"Of course! They love warmth, you know. Perhaps it climbed up the legs of the bed and crept in where it would be covered up."
"It was rather rude to do such a thing in a visitor's bed though, wasn't it? It isn't as though I was one of the residents. And it must have been a clever chap, too, because it got in without disarranging the mosquito curtains the least little bit. That was clever, when you come to think of it!"
At which Sebastian gave a rather raucous kind of laugh, and then set his horse in motion.
"Au revoir!" said Julian. "I hope you'll find Madame Carmaux much better when you get back."