42 
ALMOST HUMAN 
careful calculation than at first. This time he got fairly on the back 
of the snake and fastened his teeth in its neck. The snake gave a sharp, 
quick jerk and flung him right off. This was repeated time after 
time. The snake began to get very angry, and in his eagerness to finish 
off his intrepid young assailant he raised nearly half his body off the 
ground in order to get a better advantage in striking a death-blow. This 
time the doughty little warrior sprang cleverly for the middle of the 
snake’s body just where it left the ground, and he ran hastily up the 
upraised back and clung as well as he could with his crippled foot on 
to the slippery surface of the back of the neck. Just as he was about 
to fasten his teeth in the most vulnerable spot of his foe’s anatomy, the 
frightened snake gave a mighty shake as if he were swept by a volcanic 
storm off the ground, and freed himself of the little thing that kept 
up the nerve-racking squeal. By this time both snake and rat seemed 
utterly exhausted. The rat ran back to his corner and watched for 
the next move — that failed to come; and there he rested, puffed pain- 
fully, but still full of fight. The snake, on the contrary, had had all 
he wanted of it, and he drew back, completely cowed. The brown 
snake had been a most interested spectator of the whole of the proceed- 
ings, but, although he was ready to strike if opportunity offered, he did 
not attempt to interfere. The little rat gave him a side glance 
occasionally, but he seemed to regard him as of quite minor importance, 
to be tackled when the bigger one was finished. A truce was called. 
The black snake badly wanted to kill and eat the rat, but even while 
it lay panting in the corner he dared not make an effort to strike home. 
“It showed,” said Mr. Wilkie, “that size does not count for much 
if sufficient pluck is there. I thought as he had put up a tip-top fight 
of three rounds, he had earned his freedom, and although the last things 
we want about the gardens are rats, I had to let the brave cripple get 
back his liberty. I opened the door, and he ran to me at once in perfect 
confidence that I would rescue him from such horrible surroundings.” 
One of the keepers put in another of the little rats, because they knew 
the black snake was really hungry, but the snakes had had quite enough 
of firebrands for one day, and neither molested it. When the keeper 
went to see how the second offering was getting on, he found the little 
rodent busily employed in burrowing a hole in the floor in order to 
escape. As the hole would have been quite large enough to allow the 
reptiles to get through as well, it was a matter of necessity to free that 
one also, and thus he escaped his threatened doom. 
It was very evident next day that the brown and the black snake 
had quarrelled. It is presumed that the brown snake began hostilities 
by telling the black one what he thought of his conduct the previous 
