THE BATTLE OF THE REPTILES 167 



the snake of his cruelly gotten prey. With the 

 aid of two sticks this was effected ; but not with- 

 out some difficulty, for the snake had given the 

 lizard a double wrap besides tying his own body 

 into a classical single knot. 



You may imagine what was presently my sur- 

 prise when I saw this lizard, now unwound, and 

 whom I had thought long ago dead, quick as a 

 flash spring backwards, and, righting himself, 

 dash at the snake and grasp him again just 

 behind the head. 



Talk about being game; here was no coward 

 of any stripe. He leaped literally from the coils 

 of death back into the struggle. And he held 

 onto his opponent as tenaciously as a snapping 

 turtle. Though the snake now did his best to 

 get away — he doubtless had had quite enough 

 of it — the lizard held on with his iron grip and 

 even allowed himself to be dragged along by his 

 foe, who was now making his way toward a 

 near-by hole beneath the surface. Not to be 

 daunted when even this narrow opening was 

 entered, he permitted the snake to draw him 

 beneath the surface. When nothing but the 

 zebra-striped tail was protruding above the 



