“Better mind, sir: they’re rum things. Only got one inch o’ neck one moment, and the next they’re holding on by their tails, and seem to have three foot.”
“I’ll take care,” said Brazier. “Stand from below; I shall cut the stem at once.”
There was the sharp sound of the hatchet, as he gave a well-directed cut, and then a rustling, and the gorgeous bunch of flowers dropped, with all its bulbous stems and curious fleshy elongated leaves, right on the top of the clump of bushes beneath the great bough.
“All right!” cried Rob: “not hurt a bit. Oh, how beautiful!”
“Mind, will you!” cried Shaddy, savagely: “do you hear?”
He whipped out his knife as he stepped forward, and made a rapid cut horizontally above the bunch of orchids. For as Rob approached, with outstretched hand, to lift off this, the first-fruits of their exploration, a little spade-shaped head suddenly shot up with two brilliant eyes sparkling in the sun, was drawn back to strike, and darted forward.
But not to strike Rob’s defenceless hand, for Shaddy’s keen knife-blade met it a couple of inches below the gaping jaws, cut clean through its scale-armed skin, and the head dropped among the lovely petals of the orchis, while the body, twisting and twining upon itself in a knot, went down through the bush and could be heard rustling and beating the leaves out of sight.
There was a peculiar grey look on Rob’s face as he looked at Shaddy.
“Only just in time, master,” said the latter. “It’ll be a lesson to you both in taking care.”
Rob shuddered; but, making an effort, he said, laughing dismally, “I don’t suppose it was a venomous snake, after all.”