Next minute the head and neck of a huge crimson snake was protruded—hissing.
James fired at once.
It was an ugly sight to see that headless serpent wriggling and leaping on the clearing.
“That,” said James, as he seized it by the tail and flung it far into the bush, “was the chief medicine-man’s familiar. There are no snakes on the island, so where he procured it was always a mystery to me. But its possession gave the man great power over even the king himself, all believing it to be an evil spirit. And no wonder, for this ‘red devil,’ as the natives called it, although the medicine-man could handle it safely enough, was often permitted to bite a boy or a girl in the king’s presence, and the child invariably died in convulsions.”
“Horrible!” said Halcott. “Was there only one?”
“There was only one, and—it will never bite again.”
They walked back now towards the lake, and soon returned in company with Chips and Wilson armed with axes.
It was hard work, and an hour of it, too, cutting through that tree; but it fell with a crash at last—“carried away close by the board,” as Halcott phrased it.
“Now, men,” said James, “search among the débris in the hollow stump and see what you can find.”
