persons in instant succession, proving fatal to both
within ten minutes of each other. It is hard to conceive of any
serpent more venomously destructive than this.

On one of the flaming Sunday mornings, when there was not a cloud in
the brazen skies, a well known missionary came home from early service
and seated himself at the breakfast-table with his family. The door of
the dining-room was open and the Teluga school-teacher was outside,
when he became interested in a novel sight. A frog was hopping along
the front veranda, with an immense cobra chasing it. The serpent
struck at it repeatedly, but the fugitive, in its desperation, eluded
each blow, giving utterance to pitiful cries, as a frog will do when
pursued by a snake.

The end of the veranda reached, the frog leaped off, and the cobra
dropped to the ground in hot pursuit, but a box, standing near, offered
shelter. The creature scrambled beneath, just in time to avoid another
swift blow of the reptile, which was unable to follow it. The cobra
glided around the box, seeking some avenue by which to reach his
victim, but, finding none, moved off in the grass and disappeared.

The teacher hurried into the dining-room, with the announcement of what
he had seen. The missionary listened gravely and then inquired:

"Where is the cobra now?"

"I cannot tell, sir; he moved off among the flower-pots, but I do not
know whither he went."

"It is not my practice to go shooting on Sunday," remarked the
minister, "but it won't do to have that serpent where it is liable to
bite one of us. He must have a hole somewhere near the flower-pots;
please keep watch while I get my pistol."

The missionary always kept a loaded revolver for use when traveling
through the jungle at night, and he speedily stepped out on the
veranda, with the weapon in hand, and started to find the cobra.

Two large native flower-pots stood within a couple of yards of the
veranda. Each contained a fragrant rose, of which the good man's wife
was very fond. Every day she spent some time sprinkling them with
water or removing the dead leaves, never suspecting what proved to be
the fact that while thus employed, she continually moved about a spot
where an immense cobra lay coiled.

An opening was discovered directly between the flower pots, partly
concealed by the grass. It was about as thick as a man's wrist, and
descended perpendicularly, expanding into a small chamber.

The minister cal