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 laden shallows along its base, irregular ranks of slim, plumed reeds formed an unbroken ring around the margin of the pool.

About the pool on three sides the ground was low and spongy and carpeted with a thick growth of short, broad-bladed, moisture-loving plants; but on the fourth side it sloped sharply upward, forming a miniature plateau a foot or more above the level of the water. From this higher ground rose the stalwart gray trunk of a large magnolia whose branches, reaching far out above the pool, cast so sombre a shade that here the water seemed of an inky blackness. The sandy ground immediately beneath the tree was also in dark shadow except a single almost circular patch of sunlight, about two yards in diameter, midway between the base of the trunk and the rim of the pool.

To this spot a ray penetrated through some hidden tunnel in the dome of lustrous foliage above; and upon this white disc of light, his five feet of velvet length disposed in a loose coil and his flat, triangular head pillowed upon the warm sand, lay motionless a male diamond rattlesnake.

The snake, despite his deathlike immobility, was neither dead nor asleep. His small eyes glinted with changing metallic flashes of black and green, like beads of half-transparent obsidian, and seemed fixed in an intent and baleful stare upon the sun