e was
willing to give a like sum to make certain of its death.

In the afternoon Sam led the way to a little case of reptiles which hung
on the wall of the school laboratory. In this was a stuffed snake almost
the size of that which had disappeared.

"I guess we can frighten Sobber and Pell with that," he said to his
brothers.

"Anyway, we can try," answered Tom, falling in with the plan at once.

"We want to be careful of what we do," added Dick. "Otherwise, the pair
will smell a mouse."

They talked the matter over, and managed to get the snake upstairs
without anybody seeing them. Then they paid a visit to the dormitory
occupied by the bully and his cronies and passed some strong black
threads across the floor and elsewhere. After that they told Songbird
and their other chums of what had been done.

That night Sobber, Pell and their friends went to bed as usual. But
hardly had they turned out the lights when they heard a curious rustling
sound on the floor near the door.

"What is that?" asked Pell, who was inclined to be nervous.

"I don't know, I'm sure," answered Sobber.

The rustling continued, and something seemed to move across the floor.
Wondering what it could be, the bully got up and lit a light. Then he
gave a yell and leaped back.

"The snake!"

"Where is it?" screamed Pell, sitting bolt upright and his hair raising
on ends.

"There it is, over in the corner."

"The snake! The snake!" called out the other boys in the room, and some
were so scared that they dove under the bed clothing.

The light was not strong enough to see clearly, and nobody had the
courage to make more of an illumination. Sobber stood in the center of
the room and as he did this the snake suddenly seemed to fly through the
air right at him.

"Oh!" he screamed. "Go away!" and he flopped on his bed and threw a
blanket over him. He felt the reptile cross the bed and lay there
quaking in mortal terror. Then he heard something moving across the
floor.

"That snake is bound to bite me!" he muttered to himself. "Oh, why did I
bring it to the school!"

"Call Captain Putnam, somebody!" came from Nick Pell. He was so
frightened he could scarcely speak.

There was an emergency bell near the door, to be used in case of fire,
and this one of the boys touched. At once the alarm sounded out, and in
a few minutes the hallways were filled with pupils as on the previous
night, while some of the teachers and Peleg Snuggers appeare