g pipe," interjected Tom, who had been regarding
the object with a good deal of interest.

"It is a little odd," agreed the professor. "What do you think it is?"

"Looks like a skull of some kind," ventured Jim.

"Not a bad guess," replied the professor. "It is part of the skull of an
ophidian."

"An o' what?" ejaculated Tom.

"Not an owat," corrected the professor, "but a giant ophidian of
palazoic times."

"Gracious!" cried Tom. "I thought it was something awful, but I didn't
suppose it was as bad as that."

"I suppose there is a story connected with it," said Berwick.

"Yes," replied the professor, "rather a tragic, though a common enough
one in that region."

"We would like to hear it," suggested Jo.

"Well," began the professor slowly, "imagine if you can the depth of a
tropical jungle with a wilderness of tangled vegetation, of arching
palms and giant forms whose fronds sway in the air high above a man's
head. Through this tangle there creeps a naked savage intent on the hunt
for some animal upon which he can feed. In front of him, pendulous from
an over hanging branch there falls a rounded body like a mighty cable,
whose green and yellow colorings mix in with those of bush and tree. As
the savage creeps beneath, there is a sudden motion in the cable. It
comes to life and coils about the man.

"With a shrill cry of fear, the man tries to unloosen the deadly folds,
grasping the slimy serpent about the throat in a desperate clutch. But
all in vain. They writhe and struggle, but neither relax their hold, and
they fall to the ground beneath the arching palms.

"The seasons come and go. The ferns and palms die and bury the snake and
his victim beneath the fallen leaves and floods bring down the waste
from the hills and cover them more completely."

"My goodness!" cried Tom. "Did you see it?"

"Not actually," answered the professor. "All that happened a long time,
years, centuries, aeons, perhaps, ago. What I know is that one day on
making an excavation we found the two skeletons, that of the man and the
snake in such a position as to indicate the story I have told you. I
picked up the skull and the fancy took me to have it mounted and made
into a pipe. But that isn't getting on with the business."

"Are you a zoologist?" asked Berwick.

"No," replied the professor. "I suppose you are thinking of my title. I
use that because people generally know me better that way, and--" he
smiled broadly--"it's ea