htened out and lay
still.

"What's the matter?" cried Jim, awakened by the tumult and jumping out of
bed.

He turned pale as he saw the snake stretched out on the floor and Joe who,
now that the awful strain was over, was leaning against the wall as limp
as a rag.

Jim turned on the light and they viewed the monster, standing at a
respectful distance from the head.

"He seems dead enough, but you can never be sure of a snake," said Joe,
after in a few hurried words he had told of his experience. "Suppose, Jim,
you get that Malay's knife out of my trunk and we'll make certain."

Jim brought the kriss, which Joe had kept as a memento of his struggle
with the maniac, and with one stroke severed the cobra's head from his
body.

"That knife never did a better bit of work," he commented as he washed it
off. "Now let's get this thing out of the window and clear up the mess."

They got through the repugnant work as soon as possible and then made a
careful search of the room.

"That fellow may have had a mate," remarked Joe, "and one experience of
this kind is enough for a lifetime. I've always felt a little doubtful
about those stories of people whose hair turned gray in a single night,
but it's easy enough to believe it now."

"We'll close the window too," said Jim, suiting the action to the word and
letting the upper sash down only for an inch or two. "That's the way that
fellow must have crawled in. It's pretty hot in here but I'd rather die of
heat than snake bites."

They went back to bed but not to sleep, for they were too thoroughly
wrought up by their narrow escape.

"You must have hit that fellow an awful crack," said Jim. "You sure batted
.300 in the Ceylon League."

"Broke his neck, I guess," responded Joe. "It's lucky it wasn't a missed
strike for I wouldn't have had time for another one."

"Don't let's say anything to the girls about it," suggested Jim. "Not
until we get away from India anyway. They'd be seeing snakes all the rest
of the time we're here."

It was lucky that neither of them was slated to pitch the next day, for
they would scarcely have been in condition after their night's experience.
A game had been arranged between the visiting teams at a date three days
later. By that time Joe was in his usual superb form and easily carried
off the victory for his team. This put the Giants "on velvet," for they
now had a clear lead of two over the All-Americans.

But the satisfaction that this