e seeking fruit that the thing happened. We had
crossed the valley, and plunged into the forest on the other side, Dirk
and I being together while Pete was a few yards away, when suddenly, as
we were passing under the boughs of a big tree, I heard a kind of
_plop_, and at the same instant Dirk gave a yell that very nearly scared
me stiff. Glancing round to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, I
was horrified to see Dirk enveloped in the coils of an enormous snake,
whose ugly head was poised within a few inches of my shipmate's face,
the creature's forked tongue flickering in and out of its widely opened
jaws. I suppose I shall never be able to explain or account for the
impulse that actuated me at this horrid sight, but the fact remains
that, without pausing an instant to reflect, I thrust forward my left
hand and gripped the snake just behind the head, while with my right I
drew my sheath knife across the reptile's throat, pretty nearly severing
the head from the body at one stroke. Instantly it became a case of
`stand clear!' The snake uncoiled itself from about Dirk's body, and
proceeded to fling itself about on the ground with such terrific
violence that the air round about us was presently full of bits of
grass, broken twigs, and flying leaves, while Dirk, yelling like a
madman, flung himself upon the writhing body of the reptile, stabbing
furiously here and there with his knife--but never touching the snake so
far as I could see, while Pete came running up to ascertain what was the
matter.

"We got Dirk away from the snake eventually, and helped him back to the
cave; and when we got him there we stripped him, to learn the extent of
his injuries. To our great relief, we found that there was very little
the matter with him; he was much bruised about the body, from his waist
to his shoulders, but that was all. It was, however, enough. We agreed
that `Robinson Crusoeing' was not quite all that in our boyhood's days
we had believed it to be, and we resolved to return to the beach on the
following morning and endeavour to swim off to the wreck.

"When we started to work our way back to the beach we discovered, to our
annoyance, that the path which we had cut for ourselves through the
scrub had become completely overgrown again, consequently we had all our
former work to do over again, with the ants and mosquitoes even more
pertinacious in their attentions than before; thus the afternoon was
well advanced whe