Chapter FifteenTreasure Hunt Climax
Perhaps it was the sound. The constant, incessant, unrelenting sound of those snakes. Standing in this narrow strip of bog formed by the rising muck of the underground river, the hissing was audible on both sides now. There was something infinitely evil about it that clutched at a man’s vitals. It filled Crawford with a vague, primal panic, akin to the fear he had known of Africano before, yet different, in a subtle, insidious way.
“I knew it was you.” Quartel’s voice startled him, coming from an entirely different direction than before. “I heard you coming. I wish I could cuss the way you can, Crawford.” It was getting on Crawford’s nerves. The black was becoming unmanageable beneath him. Under other circumstances he would have been willing to play th
