“Yes, and scared that big snake,” said Briscoe. “He was having a nap tied up in a knot on some big branch. I’ve seen ’em sometimes hanging over the side in thick folds. You tumbled him over with the startling. Warning to him to take a turn round the branch with his tail.”
“Be ready to fire,” said Brace hurriedly. “It is sure to come up again to try and creep into a tree.”
“No,” said Briscoe quietly. “He won’t show himself again for hours.”
“Nonsense,” said Brace impatiently; “it would be drowned.”
Briscoe smiled good-humouredly.
“Drowned?” he said. “Just about as much as an eel would. Nice place this for a bathe, what with the alligators and the anacondas. Not much chance for a man if one of those brutes took hold of him. Pull him under in a moment.”
“Do you think one of those creatures would attack in the water?” said Sir Humphrey.
“I’ve seen one drag a pig down,” said Briscoe. “They’re as much at home in the water as out, and they can swim as easily as a water-snake.”
“Then there’s nothing to prevent that thing from thrusting out its head and seizing one of us,” said Brace.
“Nothing at all,” replied Briscoe, and then he smiled as he saw the men exchanging glances and