"How do you know you don't
like her when you've never seen her?"
"Oh, I've seen her, all I want to; and I heard her talkin' to you
just now. I won't stand for nobody tellin' you--bad stories."
Paloma snickered. "The idea! She doesn't--"
"Get her out, and keep her out," Blaze rumbled. "She ain't right;
she ain't--human. Why, what d'you reckon I saw her do, the other
day? Makes me shiver now. You remember that big bull-snake that
lives under the barn, the one I've been layin' for? Well, you
won't believe me, but him and her are friends. Fact! I saw her
pick him up and play with him. WHO-EE! The goose-flesh popped out
on me till it busted the buttons off my vest. She ain't my kind of
people, Paloma. 'Strange' ain't no name for her; no, sir! That
woman's dam' near peculiar."
Paloma remained unmoved. "I thought you knew. She used to be a
snake-charmer."
"A--WHAT?" There was no doubt about it. Blaze's hair lifted. He
blinked through his big spectacles; he pawed the air feebly with
his hands. "How can you let her touch you? I couldn't. I'll bet
she carries a pocketful of dried toads and--and keeps live lizards
in her hair. I knew an old voodoo woman that ate cockroaches.
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