I thought it was a tree branch being stepped on. Or something friable. The lance corporal driver stopped dead in his track and would not want to venture further. He had never encountered snakes during his life growing up in a rapidly urbanized Singapore. Well, maybe a few poisonous snakes at the Singapore Zoological Gardens were seen from the safety of the glass window.
Time is of the essence.
You are wearing your spectacles and the spitting cobra's venom would not shoot into your eyes. The noises we made would have frightened the spitting cobras off. In any case, we had no time to worry as Panther pulled his tracker soldier as hard as he could. It was like fox hunting in England. Only that Panther was the hound and the SUS was the fox.