EYE-BEAMS 131 



missiles, and he soon recovered himself and 

 gained a still higher branch that reached out 

 over the road and nearly made a bridge to the 

 trees on the other side. 



Seeing the monster was likely to escape us, 

 unless we assailed him at closer quarters, I 

 determined to climb the tree. A smaller tree 

 growing near helped me up to the first branches, 

 where the ascent was not very difficult. I 

 finally reached the branch upon which the 

 snake was carefully poised, and began shaking 

 it. But he did not come down; he wrapped 

 his tail about it, and defied me. My own posi- 

 tion was precarious, and I was obliged to move 

 with great circumspection. 



After much manoeuvring I succeeded in arm- 

 ing myself with a dry branch eight or ten feet 

 long, where I had the serpent at a disadvan- 

 tage. He kept his hold well. I clubbed him 

 about from branch to branch while my friends, 

 with cautions and directions^ looked on from 

 beneath. Neither man nor snake will indulge 

 in very lively antics in a treetop thirty or forty 

 feet from the ground. But at last I dislodged 

 him, and swinging and looping like a piece of 

 rubber hose he went to the ground, where my 

 friends pounced upon him savagely and quickly 

 made an end of him. 



I worked my way carefully down the tree, 

 and was about to drop upon the ground from 

 the lower branches, when I saw another bh\ck 

 snake coiled up at the foot of the tree, as if 

 lying in wait for me. Had he started to hia 



