The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians

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.