"Snakes always have bad consciences. We have forgotten the crime, but we remember the guilt."
"Perhaps you should seek advice from someone, Pete."
"I kind of think it was someone's smooth advice that started us on all this. He talked the legs right off us."
Billy Wilkins came to the cage with another "man," as the walking grubs call themselves.
"That it?" asked the other man. "And you say it can talk?"
"Of course I talk," I answered for Billy Wilkins. "I have never known a creature who couldn't talk in some manner. My name is George Albert Leroy Ellery McIntosh. I don't believe that I heard yours, sir."
"Bracken. Blackjack Bracken. I was telling Billy here that if he really had a blob that could talk, I might be able to use it in my night club. We could have you here at the Snake Ranch in the daytime for the tourists and kids. Then I could have you at the club at night. We could work out an act. Do you think you could learn to play the guitar?"
"Probably. But it would be much easier for me merely to duplicate the sound."
"But then how could you sing and make guitar noise at the same time?"