But he gave no heed to the steps. For as the last of the unseen things had been slid through the aperture, another sound had focused all his attention, and had sent queer little quivers up his spine. The sound had been a long-drawn hiss. And Gavin Brice understood. Now he knew why the softly falling bodies had slithered so oddly down the short distance between window and floor. And he read aright the slippery crawling little noises that had been assailing his ears. The unseen man outside had thrust through the ventilator not less than seven or eight snakes, carried thither, presumably, in bags. Crouching on his long box Gavin peered about him. Faintly against the dense gray of the shadowy floor, he could see thick ropelike forms twisting sinuously to and fro, as if exploring their new quarters or seeking exit. More than once, as these chanced to cross one another's path, that same long-drawn hiss quavered out into the dark silences. And now Brice's nostrils were assailed by a sickening smell as of crushed cucumbers. And at the odor his fists tightened in new fear. For no serpents give off that peculiar odor, except members of the pit-viper family. "They're not rattlesnakes," he told himself. "For a scared or angry rattler would have this room vibrating with his whirr. We're too far south for copperheads. The--the only other pit-viper I ever heard of in Florida is the--cotton-mouth moccasin!" At the realization he was aware of a wave of physical terror that swept him like a breath of ice. Without restoratives at hand the moccasin's bite is certain death. The plan had been well thought out. At the very first step the frantic prisoner might reasonably be relied on to encounter one or more of the crawling horrors. The box on which he crouched was barely eighteen inches high. The next box--under which rested the key--was several feet away. The door was still farther off. Truly Standish and Hade appeared to have hit on an excellent plan for getting rid of the man they wanted out of the way! It would be so easy for Roke to explain to possible inquirers that Brice had chanced to tread on a poisonous snake in his wanderings about the key! The slightest motion might well be enough to stir to active hostility the swarm of serpents already angered by their sudden dumping into this clammy den. Weaponless, helpless, the trapped man crouched there and waited. CHAPTER VI IN THE DAY OF BATTLE