The moment before, it was gliding along in rapid retreat, its glistening form stretched to its full length along the earth.

The next instant it had assumed the appearance of a coiled cable, over the edge of which projected its fierce head, with the scaly skin of its neck broadly extended, into that hood-like form which characterises the cobra.
Truey, we have said, looked for the cause of this sudden change in the tactics of the reptile.

She learnt it at the first glance.
There stretched a piece of smooth sloping ground from the edge of the lake back into the plain.

By this the little peninsula was approached.
As she glanced outward, she saw the springbok advancing down this slope.
It was the approach of the antelope that had interrupted the retreat of the serpent! Truey, on first discovering the snake, had uttered a cry of alarm.

This cry had summoned her pet--that had lingered behind browsing upon the grass--and it was now bounding forward, with its white tail erect, and its large brown eyes glistening with an expression of inquiry.
It saw its mistress out upon the peninsula.