Feliciana sentinel., 1892-07-23

motions. that encrmous heed and the
dsrting tongue that WA kept in rom
stant play, I felt perfectly conscious
that this snake could havaSswall0Sved
me withoSt ., pAgtiNlo. Of trSnbleF And
however q a8xiousI might h(rcsben for
Fsports yosknowsI had. rs a3lkiefy tocx-
plore the interior of boa-constrictor.
with some faint idea of selling my
life as dearly q possi0e. slipped my
h1nd softly sun1ef -; pillow ard got
heleOf Ay tevd vew The motion. easy
~ fs<~Sss rouSed Jseas, and he half
turned. Instantly two or three feet of
the huge, shining body slippsd down
through Ne roof, and the horrible hsad
(cdne neakr. Jack sawSatA4hen:-that
citizen ofthe world always % fer&ite in
expedients-and with one wild shout of
Great Scott! Jump for the cupboard.
Arch he flung himself in that direc-
tion. with glimpse OF returning rea-
son scrambled after him, and in an
instant we were crouched ON the floor,
under the lowest shelf, with tho door
shut behind US. We were safe, for the
snake could not open the cupboard: and
we, sat there and laughed and cried in
the most nonsensical fashion, with our
self-control entirely gone
- Well, if that snake amt sold: was
Jacks version Of il, but think he felt
pretty serious when he saidit. After
awhile we began to find that it was too
close in our eramped quarters and
opened the door tiny little bit SO that
we could get q breath Of air. We found
| then that the candle had gone out nd
the room was as dark as Egypt. Bnt we
could hear something moving in that
dark roo,p-soft. gliding motions
| ~ Ii, al tHn,~
| were good, strong planks between
! us and. the something ON the
other side. Time began to pass
somewhat heavily in the cupboard. !
pressed my face close to the crack in
the door to get more fresh air, and sud-
denly something lightly brushed over
| my face again and again. I didn't know
| what it was at first, but all at once it
| flashed upon me that it was the tongue
! of that snake. That was more than
could endure. With murmured W arm
ing, Look out, Jack, I'm going to are ;
/ put my revolver to the crack and
| fred at the horrible creature that was
caressing me with its Shiny tongue.
| ''Of course, shut up in that little closet
J it sounded like the very crack of doom,
| and we were deafen ned SO that it was
some time before we could hear any
| thing. When we recovered little such
| sounds rs did greet our ears! Half a
dozen wild horses couldn't have made
more noise than that snake was making.
We could hear it leap away up against
the walls and fall and twist and writhe.
flashing about with its tail and knock.
ing down everything in the room. Al
the same time the air became SO heavy
with the rank, poisonous odor the rep
tile emitted that both OF us turned
deathly sick, and Jack began vomiting.
''At last, while the snake was beating
against the walls on the other side Of
the room, I opened the door little
way, reached out in the dark and found
the candle. had one last match in my
pocket. If it should go out I thought
it was all up with us, for was quite
sure we couldn't live till morning in
that closet But fortunately the match
was good one and made n light.
thrust it out into the room a little and
viewed the wreck. Coiling, twisting