little one reposing in
the seclusion of the cavity.

Warruk evaded the charge in a nimble spring to one side and, surprised
and bewildered by the reception accorded him, dashed away--not in the
direction whence he had come but straight over the top of the windfall.
Ignorant of the pitfalls concealed by the mantel of creepers he hurried
on his course, only to break through the thin veneer and plunge headlong
into a black abyss; then he realized the treacherous nature of his
footing.

Catlike, he landed on his feet five yards below in the center of a
great, hollow stub; and, cat-like, he almost immediately began to climb
the circular wall that surrounded the damp, evil-smelling hole into
which he had fallen. But the wood was decayed; it was so soft and spongy
it would not support his weight. As fast as his claws dug into the sides
of the stub flakes broke off so that he could not draw his body off the
ground. He tried again and again; but always the result was the same.
Warruk was a prisoner in a gloomy cavity and while his prison walls were
decayed and crumbling they prevented him from climbing to safety as
effectively as if they had been made of the hardest of steel.

After numerous futile attempts the cub lay down panting, to rest.
Suddenly he became aware of the fact that he was not the only occupant
of the trap-like enclosure. A pair of beady eyes were silently regarding
him from a crevice between two great roots. The eyes were sinister eyes,
set too closely together to belong to an animal of any size unless----.
With a shudder of terror the cub leapt to the farthest side of the
prison, for the eyes were stealthily advancing, followed by a thick,
sinuous body that seemed to flow from its hiding place. The newcomer was
a great serpent.

Warruk felt an instinctive dread of the terrible creature that was so
silently approaching. The unblinking eyes transfixed him--held him
spell-bound. He had experienced nothing like it during the short year of
his life. Trembling, he drew himself back against the wall of rotten
wood as far as possible. The snake stopped and from its mouth came a
hiss that sounded like a jet of escaping steam and lasted fully half a
minute. Still the eyes came no nearer but motion was discernible in the
darkened corner from which the reptile had appeared. The boa
constrictor, for such it was, was noiselessly drawing foot after foot of
its thick body into the chamber in preparation for a quick lunge