Groot Willem now broke off a sapling, determined either to beat the hinder half of the python to a jelly, or make it surrender and show its head!
He had not delivered the third blow, when it adopted the latter alternative; and the whole of its body now glided rapidly back out of the crevice—so rapidly that Groot Willem was not able to avoid the onset of the enraged reptile, and the next moment he was gathered within its coils!
So quick was the act, that he scarce knew how it had been accomplished. He saw the head, with its open jaws extended, dart towards him; he sprang to one side, but felt the cold scaly body against his limbs as if pulling him towards the tree; and the moment after, he was swept close up to the trunk, and pressed tightly against it!
He had just time to perceive that the folds of the serpent were around his limbs, and also around the trunk of the tree,—just time to feel that they were gradually tightening upon him—when the head, with its extended jaws and terrible teeth, came right opposite his face, and the eyes of the monster gleamed right into his!
A horrid spectacle it was—a horrid situation he was in; but Groot Willem was not the boy to lose either courage or presence of mind; and, finding his arms still free, he clutched forward and seized the reptile by the throat. To hold its head was just as much as he was able with both hands and with all his strength; but he held with the grasp of despair. Fortunate it was for him that the tail of the python was secured by the rheim, and it was thus held fast at both ends! Had it been otherwise—had either head or tail been free, so that it could have used its power of constriction—in a few seconds more, Groot Willem would have been crushed as he had seen the little antelope. But now that both tail and head were fixed—the one by the cord and the other in the strong grasp of the hunter—the serpent was unable to exert its terrible power; and its folds remained loose around the limbs of its intended victim!
It writhed its neck, and wriggled its body, and changed the spiral rings from one part to another,—but all in vain. It could do him no harm!
How long this terrible struggle might have lasted would have depended upon how long the strength of the two could have held out. Groot Willem could not free himself from the folds of his antagonist, as both his legs were bound to the tree; and had he dropped the head of the python for a moment, he knew it would crush him to death. The snake, on the other hand, could not free itself, as it was held fast at both extremities. What was to be the result? Which would be the conqueror?
The serpent must have conquered in the end; though it might not have been able to free itself, as its tail was fastened to the tree. But Groot Willem was not able to strangle it, with all the compression he was exercising upon its throat, and his strength would have yielded in time. Most certainly would he have fallen a victim, but for a plan that he at length adopted to set himself free.
During all the continuance of the fight between him and the serpent, he had not attempted to use his knife. He had not thought of such a weapon against such an enemy. Not dreaming that he would be brought into close quarters, he had almost forgotten that he carried a knife. By good fortune he had one, and it was in his belt. Even though one or two folds of the snake were around his breast, he could see the handle of the knife above them; and making a sudden grasp, he laid hold of it, and drew it forth.
The blade chanced to be almost as keen as a razor; and although the serpent now succeeded in twisting its head partially free, before it could tighten its folds, the sharp edge of the knife had half severed its body in twain!