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Speaker 1: The man in the snake one. It is of veritable report,

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and attested of so many, that there be none of

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wise and learned none to gainsay it that you, serpent

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his eye hath a magnetic property, that whoso falleth into

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its vision is drawn forwards in despite of his will,

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and perishes miserable by ye creature. His bite stretched at

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ease upon a sofa, in gown and slippers, Harker Brayton

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smiled as he read the foregoing sentence in Old Morrister's

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Marvels of Science. The only marvel in the matter, he

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said to himself, is that the wise and learned in

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Morrister's day should have believed such nonsense as is rejected

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by most of even the ignorant in ours. A train

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of reflections followed, for Brayton was a man of thought,

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and he unconsciously lowered his book without altered the direction

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of his eyes. As soon as the volume had gone

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below the line of sight, something in an obscure corner

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of the room recalled his attention to his surroundings. What

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he saw, in the shadow under his bed were two

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small points of light, apparently about an inch apart. They

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might have been reflections of the gas jet above him

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in metal nail heads. He gave them but little thought

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and resumed his reading. A moment later, something, some impulse

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which did not occur to him to analyze, impelled him

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to lower the book again and seek for what he

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saw before. The points of light were still there. They

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seemed to have become brighter than before, shining with a

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greenish luster which he had not at first observed. He

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thought too that they might have moved a trifle or

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somewhat nearer. They were still too much in the shadow, however,

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to reveal their nature and origin to an indolent attention,

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and he resumed his reading. Suddenly, something in the text

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suggested a thought which made him start and drop the

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book for a third time to the side of the sofa,

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whence escaping from his hand, it fell sprawling to the

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floor back upward. Brayton, half risen, was staring intently into

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the obscurity beneath the bed where the points of light shone.

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With it seemed to him an added fire. His attention

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was now fully aroused, his gaze eager and imperative. It

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disclosed almost directly beneath the foot rail of the bed

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the coils of a large serpent. The points of light

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were its eyes. Its horrible head, thrust flatly forward from

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the innermost coil and resting upon the outermost, was directed

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straight toward him, the definition of the wide brutal jaw

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and the idiot like forehead serving to show the direction

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of its malevolent gaze. The eyes were no longer merely

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luminous points. They looked into his own with a meaning

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a malie significance. Two. A snake in the bedroom of

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a modern city dwelling of the better sort is happily

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not so commonplace, a phenomenon as to make explanation altogether needless.

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Harker Brayton, a bachelor of thirty five, a scholar, idler,

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and something of an athlete, rich, popular, and of sound health,

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had returned to San Francisco from all manner of remote

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and unfamiliar countries. His tastes, always a trifle luxurious, had

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taken on an added exuberance from long privation, and the

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resources of even the Castle Hotel being inadequate for their

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perfect gratification. He had gladly accepted the hospitality of his friend,

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Doctor Druring, the distinguished scientist Doctor Druring's house, a large,

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old fashioned one in which was now an obscure quarter

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of the city, had an outer and visible aspect of reserve.

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It plainly would not associate with the contiguous elements of

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its altered environment, and appeared to have developed some of

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the eccentricities which come of isolation. One of these was

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a wing, conspicuously irrelevant in point of architecture, and no

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less rebellious than the matter of purpose, for it was

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a combination of laboratory, menagerie and museum. It was here

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that the doctor indulged the scientific side of his nature

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in the study of such forms of animal life as

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engaged his interest and comforted his taste, which, it must

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be confessed, ran rather to the lower forms, for one

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of the higher types, nimbly and sweetly to recommend itself

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unto his gentle senses, it had at least retained certain

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rudimentary characteristics, allying it to such dragons of the prime

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as toads and snakes. His scientific sympathies were distinctly Reptilian.

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He loved nature's vulgarians, and described himself as the Zola

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of zoology. His wife and daughters, not having the advantage

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to share his enlightened curiosity regarding the works and ways

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of our ill starred fellow creatures were, with needless austerity,

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excluded from what he called the snakery, and doomed to

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companionship with their own kind. Though to soften the rigors

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of their lot, he had permitted them, out of his

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great wealth, to outdo the reptiles in the gorgeousness of

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their surroundings, and to shine with the superior splendor architecturally

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and in point of furnishing. The snakery had a severe simplicity,

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befitting the humble circumstances of its occupants, many of whom

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indeed could not safely have been entrusted with the liberty

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which is necessary to the full enjoyment of luxury, for

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they had the troublesome peculiarity of being alive in their

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own apartments. However, they were under as little personal restraint

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as was compatible with their protection from the baneful habit

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of swallowing one another. And as Brighton had thoughtfully been apprized,

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it was more than a tradition that some of them had,

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at divers times been found in parts of the premises

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where it would have embarrassed them to explain their presence.

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Despite the snakery and its uncanny associations, to which indeed

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he gave little attention, Brayton found life at the Juring

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mansion very much to his mind. Three Beyond a smart

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shock of surprise and a shudder of mere loathing, mister

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Brayton was not greatly affected. His first thought was to

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ring the call bell and bring a servant, But although

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the bell cord nangled within easy reach, he made no

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movement toward it. It had occurred to his mind that

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the act might subject him to the suspicion of fear,

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which he certainly did not feel. He was more keenly

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conscious of the incongruous nature of the situation than affected

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by its perils. It was revolting, but absurd. The reptile

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was of a species with which Brayton was unfamiliar. Its length,

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he could only conjecture. The body at the largest visible

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part seemed about as thick as his forearm. In what

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way was it dangerous? If in any way was it venomous?

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Was it a constrictor? His knowledge of nature's danger signals

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did not enable him to say. He had never deciphered

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the code If not dangerous, the creature was at least offensive.

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It was de trop matter, out of place, an impertinence.

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The gem was unworthy of the setting. Even a barbarous

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taste of our time and country, which had loaded the

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walls of the room with pictures, the floor with furniture,

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and the furniture with bric a brac, had not quite

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fitted the place for this bit of the savage life

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of the jungle. Besides insupportable thought, the exhalations of its

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breath mingled with the atmosphere which he himself was breathing.

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These thoughts shaped themselves with greater or less definition in

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Brayton's mind, and begot action. The process is what we

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call consideration and decision. It is thus that we are

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wise and unwise. It is thus that the withered leaf

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in an autumn breeze shows greater or less intense dilligence

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than its fellows falling upon the land or upon the lake.

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The secret of human action is an open one. Something

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contracts our muscles. Does it matter if we give to

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the preparatory molecular changes the name of Will Brayton rose

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to his feet and prepared to back softly away from

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the snake without disturbing it, if possible, and through the

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door people retire so from the presence of the great,

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for greatness's power and power is a menace. He knew

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that he could walk backward without obstruction and find the

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door without air. Should the monster follow. The taste, which

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had plastered the walls with paintings, said consistently supplied a

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rack of murderous oriental weapons from which he could snatch

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one the suit the occasion. In the meantime, the snake's

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eyes burned with a more pitiless malevolence than ever. Brayton

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lifted his right foot free of the floor to step backward.

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That moment he felt a strong aversion to doing so.

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I am accounted, brave, he murmured, is bravery then no

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more than pride? Because there are none to witness the shame?

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Shall I retreat? He was steadying himself with his right

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hand upon the back of a chair as foot suspended. Nonsense,

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he said aloud, I am not so great a coward

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as to fear to seem to myself afraid. He lifted

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the foot a little higher by slightly bending the knee,

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and thrust it sharply to the floor an inch in

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front of the other. He could not think how that occurred.

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A trial with the left foot had the same result.

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It was again in advance of the right. The hand

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upon the chair back was grasping it. The arm was straight,

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reaching somewhe backward. One might have seen that he was

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reluctant to lose his hold. The snake's malignant head was

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still thrust forth from the inner coil as before the

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neck level. It had not moved, but its eyes were

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now electric sparks radiating an infinity of luminous needles. The

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man had an ashy pallor. Again he took a step

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forward and another, partly dragging the chair, which, when finally released,

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fell upon the floor with a crash. The man groaned.

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The snake made neither sound nor motion, but its eyes

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were two dazzling suns. The reptile itself was wholly concealed

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by them. They gave off enlarging rings of rich and

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vivid colors, which, at their greatest expansion successively vanished like

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soap bubbles. They seemed to approach his very face, and

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a nonon were an immeasurable distance away. He heard somewhere

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the continual throbbing of a great drum, with desultory bursts

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of far music, inconceivably sweet, like the tones of an

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Eolian harp. He knew it for the sunrise melody of

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Menon's statue, and thought he stood in the nile side reeds,

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hearing with exalted sense that immortal anthem. Through the silence

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of the centuries. The music ceased, rather, it became by

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insensible dear greased the distant roll of a retreating thunderstorm.

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A landscape glittering with sun and rain stretched before him,

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arched with a vivid rainbow, framing in its giant curve

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a hundred visible cities. In the middle distance, a vast

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serpent wearing a crown reared his head out of its

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voluminous convolutions and looked at him with his dead mother's eyes. Suddenly,

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this enchanting landscape seemed to rise swiftly upward, like the

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drop scene at a theater, and vanished in a blank.

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Something struck him a hard blow upon the face and breast.

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He had fallen to the floor. The blood ran from

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his broken nose and his bruised lips. For a moment

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he was dazed and stunned, and lay with closed eyes,

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his face against the door. In a few moments he

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had recovered, and then realized that his fall. By withdrawing

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his eyes had broken the spell which held him. He

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felt that now, by keeping his gaze averted, he would

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be able to retreat. But the thought of the serpent

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within a few feet of his head, yet unseen, perhaps

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in the very act of springing upon him and throwing

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its coils about his throat, was too horrible. He lifted

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his head, stared again into those baleful eyes, and was

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again in bondage. The snake had not moved, and appeared

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somewhat to have lost its power upon the imagination. The

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gorgeous illusions of a few moments before were not repeated.

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Beneath that flat and brainless brow, its black, beady eyes

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simply glittered as at first, with an expression unspeakably malignant.

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It was as if the creature, knowing its triumph assured,

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had determined to practice no more alluring wiles. Now ensued

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a fearful scene. The man, prone upon the floor within

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a yard of his enemy, raised the upper part of

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his body upon his elbows, his head thrown back, his

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legs extended to their full length, His face was white

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beneath its scouts of blood. His eyes were strained open

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to their uttermost expansion. There was froth upon his lips.

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It dropped off in flakes. Strong convulsions ran through his body,

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making almost serpentine undulations. He bent himself at the waist,

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shifting his legs from side to side, and every movement

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left him a little nearer to the snake. He thrust

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his hands forward to brace himself back, yet constantly advanced

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upon his elbows. Four Doctor Druring and his wife sat

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in the library. The scientist was in rare good humor.

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I have just obtained by exchange with another collector, he said,

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a splendid specimen of the Ophia vegas. And what may

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that be? The lady inquired, with a somewhat languid interest.

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Why bless my soul? What profound ignorance, my dear? A

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man who ascertains after marriage that his wife does not

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know Greek is entitled to a divorce. The Ophia vegas

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is a snake which eats other snakes. I hope it

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will eat all yours, she said, absently, shifting the lamp.

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But how does it get the other snakes? By charming them.

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I suppose that is just like you, dear, said the doctor,

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with an affectation of petulance. You know how irritating to

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me is any allusion to that vulgar superstition about the

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snake's power of fascination. The conversation was interrupted by a

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mighty cry, which rang through the silent house, like the

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voice of a demon shouting in a tomb. Again, and

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yet again, it sounded with terrible distinctness. They sprang to

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their feet, the man confused, the lady pale and speechless

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with fright. Almost before the echoes of the last cry

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had died away, the doctor was out of the room,

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springing up the staircase two steps at a time. In

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the corridor in front of Brayton's chamber, he met some

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servants who had come from the upper floor. Together, they

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rushed at the door without knocking. It was unfastened and

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gave way. Brayton lay upon his stomach on the floor, dead.

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His head and arms were partly concealed under the foot

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rail of the bed. They pulled the body away, turning

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it upon the back. The face was dabbed with blood

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and froth. The eyes were wide open, staring a dreadful

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sight died in a fit, said the scientist, bending his

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knee and placing his hand upon the heart. While in

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that position, he happened to glance under the bed. Good God,

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he added, how did this thing get in here? He

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reached under the bed, pulled out the snake, and flung it,

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still coiled, to the center of the room, whence, with

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a harsh shuffling sound, it slid across the polished floor

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till it stopped by the wall, where it lay without motion.

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It was a stuffed snake. Its eyes were two shoe buttons.

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And of the Man and the Snake by Ambrose Bierce