“He’d be clever if he did, sir. I got him too tight. It’s all right, and I am making use of him at the same time.”
“Nonsense! Come out, man; you will have the place on fire directly.”
“Oh, no, I shan’t, sir. Don’t you see, I am letting him whack and scatter it all out. There won’t be enough to do any mischief now.—Hah! He’s quieting down; and he’s the last on ’em. If there were any others they are smoked out.”
As he spoke the lads could plainly see that the reptile’s efforts to escape were growing weaker, while the rest of the party, who had been busy at the other end of the hacienda, had collected at window and door, attracted by the rising smoke.
“Just in time, mates! About another two minutes and he’ll be done. Now then,” the speaker added, “I don’t want to spoil him,” and raking out the heaving reptile, he forked it to the door and tossed it a few yards away into the clearing. “All together!” he shouted. “Fair play! Knives out. Who’s for a cut of hot roast?”
Chips’s pantomime was at an end, for, rifle in hand, the skipper came running up.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he roared. “Why don’t you put that fire out? Do you want to burn the place down? Who’s been smoking here?”
“It’s all right, father. There were snakes under the floor, but Chips has burned them out.”
“Oh, that’s it! Dangerous brutes! Here, Winks, how have you been getting on?”
“Oh, tidy, sir, tidy,” said the carpenter, wiping his smarting eyes as he tried to check a cough and made it worse. “You see, there was no stuff, and I had to tear up the floor.”