“What are you going to do?” asked Jerry.
“I’m going to try to capture that snake alive,” answered Mr. Snodgrass. “I recognize it as a valuable specimen of a water reptile, something like the giant boas of the tropics. If I can capture it and ship it up north I will get a good sum from the museum. Steady with the boat and let me get ashore.”
“The snake will kill you!” cried Bob.
“No, they are comparatively harmless,” remarked the scientist. “The only danger is in being caught in their powerful coils. They are not poisonous.”
“Excuse me from that sort of a job,” murmured Ned.
By this time the boat had run ashore, the keel grating on the gravel at the edge of the lake. The professor had made a running noose and held it extended in front of him by means of the boat hook.
“I’ll try and get close enough to the reptile to slip the noose over his head,” he remarked to Jerry. “When I do, send the boat back into the lake and I think we’ll have him just where we want him.”
“Suppose he tackles you?” asked Bob.
“I’m not afraid. I’ve handled snakes before,” announced Uriah Snodgrass confidently.