If he had been his hunting expedition would probably have been ended then and there; for when he reigned up his frightened steed, and looked around to see what had caused his alarm, he saw curled up in the sand, close by the track his horse had made, a hideous puff-adder, or, to speak according to the books, a horned cerastes, than which there is not a more deadly serpent in Africa. There is no known antidote for its bite.
It is supposed by some writers on natural history to be the same reptile that Cleopatra used when she destroyed herself. It was so large in proportion to its length that it could not coil itself up as other serpents do, but lay in the form of a figure of eight.
It was excited and angry, and raised its horrid head and thrust out its tongue in the most vicious manner. Oscar looked all around for a stick or stone, but could not find any; and as he did not want to shoot for fear of alarming the secretary-bird, he rode on, leaving the reptile to curl up and go to sleep again.
"I'll attend to you when I come back," said he as he put his horse into a gallop, and resumed his pursuit of the bird, whose long strides had carried him over a good deal of ground during this short delay. "I am down on all such things as you are."
In a few minutes more Oscar was riding within a hundred yards of the secretary, which kept stalking steadily ahead, as if he had made up his mind to go somewhere. Something must have told him that Oscar meant business this time, for he would not allow the boy to come as close as he did before.
He took wing, rising so far out of range that it would have been useless to fire at him, and, sailing majestically around the hunter, flew toward the fountain, Oscar had played with him a little too long, and his prize had slipped through his fingers.
He turned in his saddle to watch the bird's graceful flight, and took note of the fact that before he had gone far he began settling toward the ground.
He came down gradually at first, then with a rush, and the moment he landed on his feet, began that awkward stalk again; but this time he moved in a circle, and kept his wings outstretched and his head turned on one side, as if he were watching some object on the ground.
Oscar was at a loss how to account for this, until he discovered that the bird had alighted on the very ground which he had passed but a few minutes before. Then the matter became quite clear to him.
"I declare, he is after that adder," said Oscar, turning his horse around so that he could have a better view of what was going on. "Now, let's see the fight. Go in, Mr. Secretary; I'll bet on you every time!"