As he spoke there was a strange rushing noise, then a peculiar whining sound not far distant among the trees.
“What can that be, doctor?” I whispered.
“Can’t say, Joe. Sounds as if some animal had been climbing along a branch, or had bent down a sapling and then let it fly up again with a loud whish among the trees.”
“That is just how it sounded to me,” I said, gazing full in his eyes.
He remained silent for a few moments, not listening but thinking.
“We must take a lesson from our friend Jack Penny, there,” he said, smiling in my face as he stroked his broad beard. “I must confess, Joe, to feeling a curious sensation of awe as we sit out here in this primeval forest, surrounded by teeming savage life; but Jack Penny coolly sleeps through it all, and, as I say, we must take a lesson from him, and get used to these strange sounds.”
“There it is again!” I said, catching his arm, and unable to control the feeling that at any moment something might spring out of the darkness upon my back.
For the same curious rustling of leaves came whispering from among the trees, and then there was a low expiration of breath, as if some great beast had yawned.
Click-click, click-click sounded loudly on the night air, and I followed the doctor’s example, cocking both barrels of my piece.
“It’s coming nearer, whatever it is,” said the doctor in a low tone, “and that strange noise means, I think, that it is some great serpent.”