On the other hand, if he kept perfectly quiet, there was the chance of the snake gliding away through the window, which had evidently been its means of entering the room.
Whether the serpent saw him or not, Joe could not tell. The head swayed for a minute or two, while the glowing eyes seemed to take in every corner of the room. Then the coils unwound and with a slithering sound the snake began to crawl across the floor.
But instead of seeking the window it was gliding towards the bed!
If he had had a revolver Joe would have had 214 a chance, for at such close range he could scarcely have missed. Even a knife to hurl, though only a forlorn hope, might have pinned the snake to the floor. But he was utterly without a weapon of any kind.
Suddenly he remembered the cane that his chum had leaned against the footboard a few hours earlier.
He reached down stealthily and his hand closed upon it.
He did not dare to wake Jim for fear that the latter might leap from the bed and perhaps land squarely on the gliding death that was somewhere in the room. He had lost sight of it, but he could still hear the dragging body and it seemed to be now under the bed. At any instant that awful head might rise on either side prepared to strike.
Gripping the cane until his fingers seemed to dig into it, Joe had a moment of awful suspense.
The gliding sound had ceased. Then from the side nearest Jim a hideous head uprose within a foot of the sleeping man’s face.
Like a flash the tough cane hissed through the air with all Joe’s muscle back of it. It caught the reptile full in the neck and sent it half way across the room where it lay writhing.