ss.

"We'll have to shin down," said Compton, "for there's no crossing
here."

Venning sat down astride a branch with his back to the trunk.

"May as well rest awhile till they come up."

"That's a queer-looking branch underneath," said Compton, following
suit, and dropping a piece of bark on a bough that had attracted his
attention. "It's covered all over with little squares of velvet
moss. See!"

"Suppose we lower our guns by the rope, then we can swarm down
easily," replied Venning, who had seen too many branches to be
interested; and passing the rope round the two rifles, he lowered
them to the ground, letting the rope follow.

"I believe it's moving, or else I've got fever or something."

"What's moving?"

"That;" and Compton pointed down.

"By Jenkins!" muttered Venning; and the two knitted their brows as
they peered down into the shadows, for the branch certainly was
moving, and moving away as if it meant to part company with the
trunk. Their glances ran along the branch outwards, and then their
eyes suddenly dilated, and their bodies stiffened.

So they stood like images, their hands clasping a branch, their
heads thrust forward, and their eyes staring. On the same level with
their heads and about twelve feet off was the head of that moving
"branch," square-nosed, wedge-shaped, with the line of the jaws
running right round to the broad part under the eyes, and a black-
forked tongue flickering through an opening beneath the nostrils, It
was the fixed stare of the lidless eyes, and the rigid position of
the grim head poised in mid air on a neck that began like the
muscular wrist of an athlete, thickening to where it was anchored on
a branch three feet away to the size of an athlete's leg. And while
the head, with the three feet of neck remained rigid, the body was
gliding out and up, finding an anchorage in the forks of the tree on
a level with the head, in readiness for the attack.

With an effort they drew their eyes away from that cold glance that
held them almost paralyzed and glanced down. Beyond, the light
branches shook as the huge coils passed over them. Such coils! As
they moved into the sunlight they saw the glitter of the scales and
the ridges of the muscles, and the movement was like the movement of
several serpents instead of one.

Venning looked again at the motionless head. "When it has gathered
its length behind and above its head," he said slowly, "it will
strike."

"And you dr