A BLACK COBRA 55 



a tail, and gave a great tug, and out came a snake ! 

 To my horror, I saw that, as its head emerged, 

 undulating in the air, it expanded its awful hood, 

 and there it was, a great black cobra ! In an 

 instant Nous seized it also by the back of the neck, 

 where he always does, before it had time to strike, 

 and off they flew together with it ; their teeth 

 closed fiercely on the terrible creature ; one at the 

 head, the other at the tail ; right into the middle of 

 the tennis. 



" Take care ! take care ! " I called in a fright, 

 "it's a cobra!" I was dreadfully afraid Nous 

 might after all have been bitten, and we hurried off 

 to find him, as they had dashed right away out of 

 sight. The first thing we came upon was the 

 cobra's head, bitten clean off with a part of the 

 neck, lying there, actually even then opening and 

 shutting its mouth. So the grip of Nous' teeth had 

 been very severe. When we came up with the 

 dogs, they were frantically wrenching bits of the 

 body from each other, evidently determined that 

 the destruction of the rest of the animal should be 

 complete. Then Nous went down into the water 

 and bathed the snake's blood off his body, and 



