n view.

I was peering into the trees and shrubs around to discover a newcomer.
I had wandered in an opposite direction to that taken by my companion,
and was creeping round a clump of shrubs about twenty yards off, in
which I detected a chirping noise, when I heard a loud scream.

I turned sharply round and beheld Mrs Reichardt, evidently in an agony
of terror, running towards me with prodigious swiftness. She had
dropped her umbrella and her staff, her cap had fallen from her head,
and her long hair, disarranged by her sudden flight, streamed behind her
shoulders.

At first I did not see anything which could have caused this terrible
alarm; but in a few seconds I heard a crushing among a thicket of shrubs
from which she was running, as if some heavy weight was being forced
through them; and presently there issued a most extraordinary monster.
It came forward at a quick pace, its head erect above ten feet, its jaws
wide open, from the midst of which there issued a forked tongue which
darted in and out with inconceivable rapidity. Its body was very long,
and thick as an ordinary tree; it was covered over with bright shining
scales that seemed to have different colours, and was propelled along
the ground in folds of various sizes, with a length of tail of several
yards behind. Its eyes were very bright and fierce. Its appearance
certainly accounted for my companion's alarm.

"Fly!" she cried in accents of intense terror, as she rushed towards me,
"fly, or you are lost!"

She then gave a hurried glance behind her, and seeing the formidable
monster in full chase, she just had power to reach the spot to which I
had advanced, and sunk, overpowered with terror, fainting at my feet.

My first movement was to step across her body for the purpose of
disputing the passage of the monster; and in an erect posture, with my
bow drawn tight as I could pull it, I waited a few seconds till I could
secure a good aim, for I knew everything depended on my steadiness and
resolution.

On came my prodigious antagonist, making a terrible hissing as he
approached, his eyes flashing, his jaws expanded as if he intended to
swallow me at a mouthful, and the enormous folds of his huge body
passing like wheels over the ground,--crushing the thick plants that
came in their way like grass.

I must acknowledge that in my heart I felt a strange sinking sensation,
but I remembered that our only chance of escape lay in giving the
monster a m