A MAN AND A SNAKE
Ned, Bob and Jerry paused a moment on the threshold of the barrack building they had been about to enter. From within came a sound of commotion, as if several persons were quickly rushing to and fro, and there were excited shouts.
“Come off, Jack, what are you doing? Trying to string us?” asked Ned of the lad who had spoken of the snake.
“Nothing of the sort!” protested the other. “As true as I’m telling you, there’s a snake loose in there as big as a barrel, and as long as a fence rail around one of these cotton plantations!”
“Is he joking, Ted?” asked Jerry of another of the lads who had rushed out in such haste.
“Not a bit of it! I saw the snake myself. It isn’t quite as big as a barrel, but it certainly is long.”
“Come on, fellows!” called Jerry to his two chums. “We’ve got to see this!”
“What!” cried Jack Wade, “you aren’t going in there, are you?” 12
“Why not?” asked Jerry. “We’ve had some experience with snakes. Besides, we want to see the spy. Is there a spy inside here, too?”
“There is!” cried another lad. “They caught the spy dead to rights, planting a bomb under the officers’ mess building. Wanted to blow ’em all up when they were eating, I guess. Oh, he’s a German spy, all right, and they have him tied up!”
“But what connection has he with the snakes?” Bob questioned.
“Not any that I know of,” replied Jack.
“Yes, he has, too!” asserted one of his chums. “The spy had the snake. He was going to let him loose in camp, hoping he’d bite and poison a lot of us, I s’pose, so we can’t go to France to fight the Huns.”
“Big snakes are seldom poisonous,” cried Jerry. “This may be a python or a boa escaped from some circus, though I haven’t heard of any animal shows being around here lately.”
“Me, either,” added Bob. “Say, are you sure you saw a snake?” he asked the lads who had rushed out in such a hurry.
“As sure as we see you now, and you’re not much smaller around the waist than this same snake,” added Jack with a laugh.
“Cut out the comedy stuff!” murmured Bob.
“Well, if there’s a real snake in there I want 13 to see it!” exclaimed Jerry. “Come on!” and he pushed open the door which had swung shut after the exit of the excited lads.
Within the barracks the three Motor Boys saw a scene of excitement. One end of the big building, which was filled with cots and bunks, was comparatively empty, but at the other there was a group of officers and men. Some of them appeared to surround the captive, though the three chums could not just then get a glimpse of him.
“There it is!” suddenly cried Ned, pointing.
“What—the spy?” asked Bob.
“No, the snake! See it?”
He pointed. There was no doubt of it. A long, glistening, brown body was seen to glide under a row of cots.
“It’s a snake all right,” assented Jerry, “but not half as big as I thought. It’s just like one I’ve seen––”
He was interrupted by a voice which rang out above the murmurs from the group at the other end of the barracks, and the commanding voice of Colonel Shield demanded:
“What is going on here? What is all the excitement about?”
It appeared that he had just entered at the doorway around which were grouped the excited officers and men.
“We have caught a spy,” some one said. 14
“He must have let the big snake loose!” another added.
“Well, why don’t some of you shoot the reptile?” asked the colonel. “A fine lot of soldiers you are, I must say! Afraid of a snake! Where will you be when you go up against the Germans? Some one get a rifle and shoot the snake!”
At this command a protesting cry came from the midst of a group of soldiers who were guarding the man arrested as a spy.
“Don’t shoot my snake! Don’t shoot my pet snake!” came the entreaty. “He is worth a fortune! Don’t harm him!”
There was a commotion—a scramble. Several men stumbled and fell, and from their midst a figure dashed—a figure at the sight of which a gasp of astonishment came from the three Motor Boys.
And since Ned, Bob and Jerry have been called Motor Boys several times I will take just a moment here to tell who these lads were and something about them; also why they were at Camp Dixton. Of course, the readers who already know this may skip what immediately follows and proceed with the story.
As related in the initial volume of the first part of this series, a book which is named “The Motor Boys,” Ned Slade, Bob Baker and Jerry Hopkins were chums of long standing. They lived in Cresville, 15 not far from Boston, and the three lads were well-to-do. Jerry’s mother was a wealthy widow, while Bob’s father was a banker, and Ned’s a department store owner.
The Motor Boys were so called because they spent so much time in or about vehicles that depended on gasoline motors for their activity. They began with motorcycles and ended with airships—though one should not say ended, for their activities were far from over.
In the books succeeding the initial volume are related the various adventures of the Motor Boys, who journeyed to Mexico, across the plains, and traveled much on the Atlantic and Pacific, both in craft on the surface and in submarines. Their trips above the clouds in aeroplanes and airships were much enjoyed.
“The Motor Boys on Road and River,” was the last volume of the first series, the final volume to carry that title.
The second series began with “Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall,” and the only change in the stories was in the title, for the main characters were still the “Motor Boys.”
The parents of the lads felt that they ought to do some studying, and, accordingly, Ned, Bob and Jerry were sent to Boxwood Hall. What took place there formed not only a well-remembered part in their lives, but furnished some excitement 16 as well. When vacation came they went to a Western ranch and had fun, as well as helped in an important piece of work.
And then came the Great War.
Our heroes could do nothing less than enlist, and in the volume called “Ned, Bob and Jerry in the Army,” which immediately precedes this one you are reading, is told something of their life at Camp Dixton, one of the training camps in the South.
There the chums had learned to become soldiers, and, with others of their kind, were eagerly awaiting a chance to go over seas and fight it out with the Huns.
And now we meet them again in the midst of excitement over a spy scare—not the first of the kind to happen in the camp, where, as the readers of the volume before this will doubtless recall, the activities of “Pug” Kennedy and “Crooked Nose,” formed the basis for some real danger.
“That snake sure is real!” cried Bob, as he saw the serpent writhing about. “And whoever has him for a pet must be nervy.”
“Look! Look!” exclaimed Jerry. “The spy is going right for the snake!”
“And look who the spy is!” added Ned.
There were shouts from the officers and men. Several of the latter had gotten their rifles and were edging about, trying to find an opening 17 through which they might fire at the serpent.
The man who had broken away from his captors rushed toward the end of the building where Ned, Bob and Jerry had last seen the reptile, which was now out of sight under some bunks.
“Don’t shoot him! Don’t shoot my pet! He is worth thousands of dollars!” cried the reputed spy.
And then, to the surprise and fear of all save the Motor Boys, who had an insight into the truth, the man fairly threw himself forward on the serpent, as a football player falls on the ball.
“Ah, I have you! I have you, my beauty!” cried the man. “You shall not get away from me again, and they sha’n’t shoot you, either!”