rian, who had been busy at her loom, looking up caught sight of Quacko
and Crass flying away in the far distance. Guessing the cause of her
favourite's flight, she ran to call Quacko back, and to try to recover
her bird. As she was making her way through the thick underwood, I
fortunately happened to see her, and calling to Arthur, we both ran to
her assistance. So thick was the forest, however, at this spot, that we
soon lost sight of her; and though we shouted to her to return, she made
no reply. Recollecting the fearful danger to which she had before been
exposed on the bank of the stream, I could not help fearing that some
accident had happened to her.

We went on till we saw Crass on the bough of a tree just ahead of us,
and I was sure that Marian could not be far off. Just then it occurred
to me that she was perhaps only trying to frighten us; so, instead of
following her further, I resolved to climb the tree and secure the bird.
Calling to Arthur, we both easily mounted by means of several sepos
which hung down from it, and of three or four boughs which projected
from the lower part of the trunk. No sooner had Arthur and I got up
than we caught sight of Marian clinging to a palm-tree, horror depicted
in her countenance as she gazed at something on the ground. At the same
moment Crass flew off towards her; while Arthur, exclaiming, "A snake! a
snake! it is about to attack her," leaped down to her assistance. It
was a moment of fearful suspense. I expected to see the horrible
reptile spring at my sister. It appeared to me, as I caught sight of
its head, to be one of the most venomous species--the labarri.

Just then I heard a voice shout out, "Stay quiet, Miss Marian, and keep
your eye fixed on the creature."

I did not till then observe that the raft had come close in, and I now
saw Sambo, who had leaped from it, making rapidly towards the shore with
a long stick in his hand. The snake, whose tail had been coiled round
the root of a tree, had all the time remained perfectly still, though
uttering ominous hisses. In another instant the reptile would have made
its fatal spring; but Sambo, climbing up the bank, dealt it a furious
blow on the head. This made it uncoil its tail; then he followed up the
attack by a second blow. The snake dropped its head.

Marian, relieved of her terror, fell fainting to the ground just as
Arthur and I reached her, while Crass immediately came flying down to
her feet.