386 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



sion drew up at her little house to wait for the train she called 

 out to Milady the comforting information that "In der midst 

 of life we are in death! " This greatly amused the sufferer, 

 and we settled ourselves for the long wait. As long as one 

 has something to do, any helpful work, to keep one's hands 

 or mind busy, it is an easy matter to control one's feelings 

 in a critical emergency. But when one must wait quietly 

 for hours, the long period of inaction is maddening. We 

 tramped up and down the track, telephoning every few 

 minutes to locate the progress of the special along the line. 

 Then Crandall spied a big yellow-tailed snake (Herpetodryas 

 carinatus) crossing the track. Here was an excuse for work- 

 ing off surplus steam, and we both made a dash for it. Cran- 

 dall caught it by the tail as it was disappearing into the brush 

 and we had an exciting ten minutes getting it unharmed into a 

 snake bag, the active creature succeeding in biting us twice 

 before we muffled it. Visitors to the Reptile House of our 

 Zoological Park little imagine, when gazing at this handsome 

 creature, what a relief to our tense nerves its capture meant. 



At last the special came in sight and we set out on the 

 wildest of rides to Georgetown. Having seen Milady in a 

 doze on a sofa in the train, Crandall and I climbed up to the 

 railed-in roof of the car and, with the wind beating down 

 our very eyelids, watched the narrow escapes of dogs, cows, 

 donkeys and coolies, from the track at the approach of this 

 unlocked for train. The yellow and scarlet Blackbirds 

 blew up like chaff on either hand. Egrets, Ibises and Jabirus 

 watched in amazement from afar, or flew hurriedly off at the 

 long drawn-out siren whistle, which hardly ceased across the 

 whole country. 



We met the single afternoon train, side-tracked to let us 

 pass, and then had an open road to Georgetown. Slowing 

 down, we passed through the station, on through the streets, 

 to within a half block of Mr. Vinton's house. 



