HOW TOM WAS BOBN A FBENCHMAN 345 



a bough with a rope he had with him. Then he gripped the 

 branch overhead and closed his eyes. 



Soon he became drowsy, and had a strange dream. 

 A whistle seemed to sound overhead and something chilly 

 to be stifling him with great coils. This gradually passed, 

 and the ghosts of wolves seemed to fade and their howls 

 to decrease as the tree bent and rocked ; then all was 

 silence. 



After this the Captain fell sound asleep, and did not 

 wake till dawn. As he opened his eyes the first thing he 

 saw was the green boughs overhead through which were 

 glimpses of blue sky. Then he looked down, and at once 

 the terrors of the night were explained. The ground all 

 round the tree was scratched up by the claws of many 

 wolves, whilst one of them, crushed almost out of shape, 

 lay there half swallowed by a huge serpent whose tail 

 was still coiled round the tree. 



The Captain trembled when he saw the double danger 

 he had been in : the wolves at his feet and the serpent 

 overhead ; for he remembered the whistling sound, and 

 the clammy folds which had so nearly choked him. He 

 remained for some time staring at the strange sight before 

 him, but at last dropped carefully to ground, and hurried 

 away as fast as his feet would carry him. 



There was no road in the forest, but the hunter's 

 instinct, combined with the sailor's science, soon enabled 

 him to strike on a track through the thick vegetation. He 

 was hungry, but as, in his haste to fly from the wolves, he 

 had lost his gun, all game was beyond his reach, and he 

 had to be content with such roots and berries as he could 

 find. 



At length he thought he saw daylight more clearly, and, 

 quickening his steps, arrived shortly at the outskirts of 

 the forest in sight of a great green plain with a line of 

 mountains beyond. To his joy a thin column of smoke 

 in the distance gave signs of some habitation, and he struck 

 at once towards it. 



