Dick went in advance, and was half-way down when he stepped on a loose stick and went rolling into a perfect network of vines and brushwood.
"Are ye hurt?" sang out old Jerry.
"No—not much!" answered the eldest Rover. "But my wind—Oh, goodness gracious!"
Dick broke off short, and small wonder. As 'he arose from the hole into which he had tumbled, a hissing sound caught his ears. Then up came the head of a snake at least eight feet long, and in a twinkle the reptile had wound itself around the boy's lower limbs!
CHAPTER XIV
SETTLING DOWN ON THE ISLAND
"What's wrong, lad?"
"A snake! It has wound itself around my legs!"
"Ye don't say!" gasped Captain Jerry, and then leaped down to the hollow. "Well, by gosh! Take that, ye beast!"
"That" was a blow aimed at the reptile's head with the sailor's stick. Old Jerry's aim was both swift and true and the head of the reptile received a blow which knocked out one eye and bruised its fang. But the body wound itself around Dick tighter than ever.