For answer Brazier cut frantically with his axe at something invisible to those below, but evidently without avail, till he struck a small bough so violently that they saw the object dropping down, and Rob had only time to leap aside to avoid a small snake, of a vivid green with red markings, which fell just where he had been standing, and then began to twine in and out rapidly, and quite unhurt, ending by making its escape into the dense forest, where it was impossible to follow.
“Did you kill it?” cried Brazier from up in the tree.
“No,” said Rob; “it’s gone!”
“Ah,” said Shaddy, thoughtfully, “I never thought to warn you against them. That’s a poisonous one, I think, and they climb up the trees and among the flowers to get the young birds and eggs and beetles and things. Better always rattle a stick in amongst the leaves, sir, before you get handling them. Try again, now, with the handle of the hatchet.”
Brazier obeyed, and snatched his hand back directly, as he held on with his left, after violently striking the branch close to the plant he tried to secure.
“There’s another here,” he said.
“Better come away, sir!” cried Rob.
“No; I must have this bunch. I have nearly cut the boughs clear from it, and a stroke or two then will divide the stem, and it will drop clear on to those bushes.”
“Shall I come, sir?”
“No; I’ll keep away from where the thing lies. It is coiled-up, and I only saw its head.”