Old monk with big hands; The boy’s companion in the cave for the night . . . but not the only companion . . .

           The boy stayed awake for a long time, listening. He heard nothing but the sound of the wind outside the cave, winding wispily up, up the mountainside. Then there was a howl. He heard the bark of a few dogs. Two dogs came into the cave and plopped down on the floor near the cave entrance. These dogs were friendly to the monks—and often protected the monks from other creatures of the night. They must have wanted to get out of the light rain that fell like a misty veil on all of the outside world.

           The only light in the cave was the six candles they set up around them, now flickering around their small beds. The boy yawned, feeling comforted by the protection of the ring of candlelight. At that tense moment, he remembered the story Sammy had told him about a cobra, another kind of snake that lives in the steamy jungle. Cobras live in a different part of the cave, he would say, and generally keep to them selves. Sammy once told him that he fell asleep in the temple in the daytime, and when he awoke he found a cobra next to his ear. Now a cobra is a smaller snake but when it strikes, it opens up a hood behind its face and bites rabbits with big pointed fangs. But Sammy was not a rabbit, so the monk asked the Cobra right then and there, "Hello, Cobra, what do you want?" The cobra said nothing but looked at Sammy with little beady eyes. Sammy asked again, "What are you doing here, cobra?" The cobra had no good answer to that question, so he crept away silently back into his side of the cave. Sammy closed his eyes, and needless to say, fell back into a deep slumber. The boy remembered this story and tried to take some courage from it. But he shivered, noticing the other monk had now fallen asleep under his mosquito net. He yawned again. All of this excitement wore him out to the point that he didn't realize he had fallen asleep -- until it was too late.

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