"In front of me!"
My father took a few steps forward, but although he looked most attentively, he could not see anything.
He shrugged his shoulders to indicate his inability.
"Why, there, there! Can't you see it?" said the captain. "It is curled round and round, sitting up on its coils with its head poised, hissing."
"Well, then, fire at it as quickly as you can, or it will spring."
Captain d'Horbourg rapidly raised his gun to his shoulder and drew the trigger.
Only the priming went off.
At the same moment the snake sprang, but before it had covered the distance that separated it from the captain, the gun went off, and the ball shattered its head.
The serpent fell at the captain's feet and coiled round his legs in its death convulsions, writhing in its agony.