"Oh, I'm careful enough, but you might not know when to be on your guard. This island is a snaky one. It's famous for its diamond-back rattlers and the size of them. Their fangs are an inch long, and it usually means death to be struck by one of them."
The girl nodded thoughtfully.
He said with a new anxiety: "As a matter of fact, you really ought not to be down here all alone."
"I know it. But it meant a race for ownership, and I had to come at a minute's notice."
"You should have brought a maid."
"My dear Mr. Gray, I have no maid."
"Oh, I forgot," he muttered—"but, somehow,[183] you look as though you had been born to several."
"I am the daughter of a very poor professor."
He fidgetted with his sweet-bay twig, considering the aromatic leaves with a troubled and concentrated scowl.
"You know," he said, "this wretched island is celebrated for its unpleasant fauna. Scorpions and wood-ticks are numerous. The sting of the one is horribly painful, and might be dangerous; the villainous habits of the other might throw you into a fever."