White and glaring it stretched below her, till at last a grove of mango
trees, which she remembered to be less than a mile from Kundaghat,
closed about it, hiding it from view.
"The _mem-sahib_ will need her servant no more," said her guide, pausing
slightly behind her while she studied the landscape at her feet with the
road that wound through the valley.
She took out her purse quickly, and shook its contents into her hand. He
had been as good as his word, but she knew she had but little to offer
him unless he would accompany her all the way to Kundaghat. She stopped
to count the money before she turned--two rupees and eight annas. It did
not seem a very adequate reward for the service he had rendered her.
With this thought in her mind she slowly turned.
"This is all I have with me--" she began to say, and broke off with the
words half-uttered.
She was addressing empty air! The snake-charmer had vanished!
She stood staring blankly. She had not been aware of any movement. It
was as if the earth had suddenly and silently gaped and swallowed him
while her back was turned.
In breathless astonishment she moved this way and that, searching for
him among the trees that seemed to grow too sparsely to afford a screen.
But she searched in vain. He had clean gone, and had taken his repulsive
pet with him.
Obviously, then, he had not done this thing for the sake of reward.
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