en through the veil of foam
hanging iridescent about the reef, and twice over rising up sufficiently
for the long low hull of a great sea-going canoe crowded with men to
come into sight.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

AN ADVENTURE.

Jack did not see the canoe, for his attention was taken up by the little
serpent which had suddenly flung itself upon his hand, as he disturbed
the cluster of flowers, and struck at his arm sharply--twice.

Sharply does not express the way in which the reptile attacked him, for
the whole business from its springing, coiling, and striking seemed
instantaneous. The effect upon the lad was peculiar. He had man's
natural horror of all creatures of the serpent kind, and as he broke off
the sweetly-scented bunch of flowers a pang shot through him--a
sensation of pain which made him turn cold and wet, while his senses
felt exalted, so that sight, smell, hearing, and feeling were magnified
or exaggerated in the strangest way, but his muscular power seemed to
have failed. His man's cries for help sounded deafening; the fragrant
odour of the orchids made him feel faint; the little serpent appeared
enormous, and its eyes dazzling, while the cold touch of its scaly body
against his bare hand was of some great weight, and when it rapidly
compressed his fingers with its folds, to give itself power to strike,
and struck twice, the concussion of the lithe neck and jaws felt like
two tremendous blows which paralysed him, so that he stood there as if
turned to stone, with his arm outstretched staring down at the--as it
seemed to him--gigantic head, which glided about over his enormously
swollen arm, the sparkling malicious eyes seeming to search into his,
and then about his arm for a fresh place at which to venom.

It was in its way beautiful, in its golden-brown and greenish tints,
while the back appeared to be shot with violet and steel, as the light
which flashed from the glittering sea was thrown up beneath the trees.
Jack was so utterly fascinated for the time being that his eyes took in
every detail, and he noted how the reptile's tightly-closed mouth
resembled a smile of triumph, and thought that the tiny forked tongue
which kept on flickering in and out of the orifice in the front part of
the jaws mocked at him as the creature laughed silently at his
helplessness.

"It has killed me," was the predominant thought in the boy's mind, as he
stood there for what seemed to be a long space of time, with