“Well?” I inquired, anxiously.

“I will adhere to the vow that I took before leaving California.  We swore then never to desert each other, either in sickness or in health.  Until you are content to leave Australia, I remain.  That is settled upon.”

We shook hands, and bound the bargain, and as we did so, the light that had wavered and flickered, and revealed the desperate fight, between the robber and the snake, suddenly died out, and left us in darkness.

And then we heard gentle steps upon the floor, and a snuffing, as though some animal was pawing over the bodies, and while we were listening to discover who our new visitor was, I felt something cold touch my hand, and I started in alarm; but my fears quickly vanished, for I found that Rover had recovered from his fright, and had come back in search of his master.  The poor dog!  I could not blame him for deserting us, considering the character of our late visitor.

The brute curled down beside us, and sat and listened to our conversation through the night, but during that period his ears were raised as though waiting a repetition of the sound that had alarmed him hours before.

“I saw you move your hand towards your revolver,” I said, addressing Fred; “why did you not use it before the snake attacked the poor fellow?”

“Because, while looking at the monster, a feeling came over me that I cannot at this moment account for.  I had regarded the snake with the utmost dread and abhorrence, until all at once I thought that I did not appear to look upon him with the same disgust, and the longer that I gazed, the more fascinated I became, and I could not have harmed the reptile, had my life depended upon my actions.”

It was singular, but his feelings were the same that I had experienced, and I refer the matter to scientific gentlemen, and desire them to solve the question.  Can a black snake, by the aid of lamp light, fascinate two men, separated a distance of three yards, so that they lose all mastery over their actions, and are impelled, by a power that appears uncontrollable, to approach an object that they most dread on earth?

It seems a strange story, yet it is a true one:  I will give the dimensions of the reptile, so that the public may know that it was no puny monster.  Its length was exactly thirteen feet, five inches and a quarter, and its circumference was thirteen inches and a half.  The snake was of the Diamond species, and grows quite large in Australia.  I have heard of even larger ones being destroyed, but I thank fortune that I never met them during my residence.  Their bites are not of a poisonous nature, but their fangs are so large and strong that they inflict an awkward wound; and in one case, when a miner was bitten, all efforts to stop the flow of blood were futile, and the poor fellow bled to death.

This occurred at Ballarat, soon after we located in that cheerful place, and Fred and myself were both sent for to investigate the case.  We judged that the fangs of the snake had struck an artery, and this supposition, I have, since my return to this country, found to be correct.