THE PYTHON ESCAPES. 



539 



tliat tlie monster liad escaped. Every one then asked, 

 Wliere is lie ? " but no one could teU. I assured 

 tlie captain tliat he was in the hox when I put it on 

 the sampan to come off to the ship. " Is he on 

 hoard ? " was the next question from the mouths of 

 all. We looked carefully in the boat and round the 

 deck, but could detect no trace of him whatever, and 

 all, except myself, came to the conclusion that he was 

 not brought on board, and then went back to their 

 work. The bos in which he had been confined was 

 about a foot and a half long by a foot high and 

 a foot wide, and over the top were foiu- or five 

 strips of board, each fastened at either end with a 

 single nail. On inquiring more closely, the sailor 

 told me that before I seized the box, the side with 

 the slats was one of the perpendicular sides, and had 

 not been placed uppennost, as it ought to have been, 

 " Then," I reasoned, " he is here on board somewhere 

 beyond a doubt, and I brought him here, and it's my 

 duty to find him and kill him.** 



We had four horses on deck, and the middle of 

 the boat w^as filled witli hay for them, and under 

 that it was probable the great reptile had crawled 

 away. In the bottom of the boat, aft, was a tri- 

 'angular deck, and, as I climbed up a second time, I 

 noticed that the board whicli tbrnied the apex of the 

 triangle was loose, and moved a little to one side. 

 Cai'e&Lly raising this, I espied, to my hoiTor, the 

 great python closely coiled away beneath, the place 

 being so small that the loose board rested on one of 

 his coda, I wore a thin suit, a CJhinese baju, or loose 

 blouse, a parr of canvas shoes, and a large sun-hat. 



