In due course we reached Lord Ragnall’s room, which Mr. Savage entered, and in answer to a stifled inquiry exclaimed,

“Mr. Allan Quatermain to see you, my lord.”

“What is it, Quatermain?” he asked, sitting up in bed and yawning.  “Have you had a nightmare?”

“Yes,” I answered, and Savage having left us and shut the door, I told him everything as it is written down.

“Great heavens!” he exclaimed when I had finished.  “If it had not been for you and your intuition and courage——­”

“Never mind me,” I interrupted.  “The question is—­what should be done now?  Are you going to try to arrest these men, or will you—­hold your tongue and merely cause them to be watched?”

“Really I don’t know.  Even if we can catch them the whole story would sound so strange in a law-court, and all sorts of things might be suggested.”

“Yes, Lord Ragnall, it would sound so strange that I beg you will come at once to see the evidences of what I tell you, before rain or snow obliterates them, bringing another witness with you.  Lady Longden, perhaps.”

“Lady Longden!  Why one might as well write to The Times.  I have it!  There’s Savage.  He is faithful and can be silent.”

So Savage was called in and, while Lord Ragnall dressed himself hurriedly, told the outline of his story under pain of instant dismissal if he breathed a word.  Really to watch his face was as good as a play.  So astonished was he that all he could ejaculate was—­

“The black-hearted villains!  Well, they ain’t friendly with snakes for nothing.”

Then having made sure that Miss Holmes was still in her room, we went down the twisting stair and through the side doorway, locking the door after us.  By now the dawn was breaking and there was enough light to enable me in certain places where the snow that fell after the gale remained, to show Lord Ragnall and Savage the impress of the little bedroom slippers which Miss Holmes wore, and of my stockinged feet following after.

In the plantation things were still easier, for every detail of the movements of the four of us could be traced.  Moreover, on the back drive was the spoor of the horses and the marks of the wheels of the carriage that had been brought for the purposes of the abduction.  Also my great good fortune, for this seemed to prove my theory, we found a parcel wrapped in native linen that appeared to have fallen out of the carriage when Harut and Marut made their hurried escape, as one of the wheels had gone over it.  It contained an Eastern woman’s dress and veil, intended, I suppose, to be used in disguising Miss Holmes, who thence-forward would have appeared to be the wife or daughter of one of the abductors.

Savage discovered this parcel, which he lifted only to drop it with a yell, for underneath it lay a torpid snake, doubtless one of those that had been used in the performance.