TIME'S FINGER 291 



force at the portion of the body within reach, ducking 

 simultaneously. Shooting over me, the head of the 

 enemy struck the rock with brain-bemuddhng impact. 

 For once the serpent had been foiled. With jaws 

 awry, the head swung limply, hke a ceasing pendulum. 

 One blow with the back of the tomahawk established 

 the right of man to wander at will among the rough 

 and secret places of the mountain. 



Still did the swaying reptile cling with a single coil 

 round the fig-tree's branch, while chill blood dripped and 

 splashed among the intertwined and snake-like roots. 

 A sudden tug brought the body down a squirming mass. 

 With rough-shod heel, I fulfilled the letter of the law, 

 bruising the battered head, and then were revealed the 

 bosses by which, with the tail, the snake had sustained 

 its dead weight. 



Was this the "debil-debil" which had scared so many 

 from the quest — a python which any man might kill 

 in the open without running any risk, and which a black 

 boy, with time on his hands, would joy to eat ? Yet 

 I own that I was somewhat flustered, and not a little 

 tired and bruised and angry, because such an impedi- 

 ment had had to be cleared from the track. Was there 

 not cause for indignation ? Why should a gormandising 

 serpent, full to repletion, lie slothfully across a highway 

 open to all, to the checking of a holiday-making mortal 

 in lawful pursuit of a demon-protected crystal ? Let 

 me once more vindictively stamp on its head. 



But which way ? Here was a dead and unscalable 

 wall to right and left and in front, and all in deep shadow. 

 I estimated that another one hundred feet would take 

 me to the mountain-top, whence it would be possible 

 to survey the scene in relation to the bejewelled rock. 

 Descent was the only practicable preliminary towards 

 further ascent. Utilising the interlacing roots of the 



