190 JUNGLE PEACE 



again, without a murmur. In the slanting rays 

 of the sun he walked lightly down the trail 

 from Kalacoon as if he had not been hunting 

 since early dawn. An hour passed and the sun 

 swung still lower when a panting voice gasped 

 out: 



"Huge labaria, yards long! Big as leg!" 

 The flight of queen bees and their swarms, 

 the call to arms in a sleeping camp creates some- 

 what the commotion that the news of the bush- 

 master aroused with us. For he is really what 

 his name implies. What the elephant is to the 

 African jungles and the buffalo to Malaysia, 

 this serpent is to the Guiana wilderness. He 

 fears nothing — save one thing, hunting ants, 

 before which all the world flees. And this was 

 the first bushmaster of the rainy season. 



Nupee had been left to mount guard over 

 the serpent which had been found near the 

 trogon tree. Already the light was failing; so 

 we walked rapidly with gun, snake-pole and 

 canvas bag. Parrakeets hurtled bamboowards 

 to roost; doves scurried off and small rails flew 

 from our path and flopped into the reeds. Our 

 route led from the open compound of Kalacoon, 

 through the freshly cut Convict Trail, toward 



