waited ...

gripping the shelf and fighting against her over-mastering weakness for the life of the unborn child that, even in that awful moment, she prayed might be a daughter.
After many cruelly long centuries, and as she swayed to fall, the good Antonio entered with the lamp.

Her will triumphed over her falling body.
"Boy, I am standing on a snake!" said she coolly.

"Put the lamp--" But Antonio did not stay to "put" the lamp; incontinent he dropped it on the floor and fled yelling "Sap! Sap!" and that the Mem-Sahib was bitten, dying, dead--certainly dead; dead for hours.
And the brave soul in the little room waited ...

waited ...