It is of veritabyll report, and attested of so many that there be nowe
of wyse and learned none to gaynsaye it, that y'e serpente hys eye
hath a magnetick propertie that whosoe falleth into its svasion is
drawn forwards in despyte of his wille, and perisheth miserabyll by
y'e creature hys byte.
Stretched at ease upon a sofa, in gown and slippers, Harker Brayton
smiled as he read the foregoing sentence in old Morryster's _Marvells of
Science._ "The only marvel in the matter," he said to himself, "is that
the wise and learned in Morryster's day should have believed such
nonsense as is rejected by most of even the ignorant in ours." A train
of reflection followed--for Brayton was a man of thought--and he
unconsciously lowered his book without altering the direction of his
eyes. As soon as the volume had gone below the line of sight, something
in an obscure corner of the room recalled his attention to his
surroundings. What he saw, in the shadow under his bed, was two small
points of light, apparently about an inch apart. They might have been
reflections of the gas jet above him, in metal nail heads; he gave them
but little thought and resumed his reading. A moment later something--
some impulse which it did not occur to him to analyze--impelled him to
lower the book again and seek for what he saw before. The points of
light were still there. They seemed to have become brighter than before,
shining with a greenish lustre that he had not at first observed. He
thought, too, that they might have moved a trifle--were somewhat nearer.
They were still too much in shadow, however, to reveal their nature and
origin to an indolent attention, and again he resumed his reading.
Suddenly something in the text suggested a thought that made him start
and drop the book for the third time to the side of the sofa, whence,
escaping from his hand, it fell sprawling to the floor, back upward.
Brayton, half-risen, was staring intently into the obscurity beneath the
bed, where the points of light shone with, it seemed to him, an added
fire. His attention was now fully aroused, his gaze eager and
imperative. It disclosed, almost directly under the foot-rail of the
bed, the coils of a large serpent--the points of light were its eyes!
Its horrible head, thrust flatly forth from the innermost coil and
resting upon the outermost, was directed straight toward him, the
definition of the wide, brutal jaw and the idiot-like forehead serving
to show the direction of its malevolent gaze. The eyes were no longer
merely luminous points; they looked into his own with a meaning, a
malign significance.