St. Paul daily globe., 1892-06-26

the night right there And hurrying
on we found the little hut, a miserable
place enough, thatched with leaves and
with a great hole broken in one corner
of the roof, but shelter at any rate.
The old herb gatherer was away
from home, but we took possession,
lighted candle, helped ourselves to
some food we found in the great corner
cupboard, and stretched ourSelAes on
his bed to sleep. We left the candle
burning tor fear of the ghosts, Jack
said, and remember looking the room
over Sleepily by its dim light and see
ing the tall, gaunt cupboard, whose
door we had left open, and the dark
hole in the corner of the roof. The last
thing that occurred to me was thai
could see two fiery eyes cleaning out
of the darkness through that hole, and
then | went to sleep. l had a dream
that would have done credit to candi-
date for Kelley institute, it was so full
of snakes and crawling things; and
after | had worried over it until |
couldn't stand iG any more l woke up.
lay there for several minutes looking
at the candle, which was burning low.
After Il while l raised my eyes and
started off in yawn which was frozen
on my face, as it were, leaving my
mouth wide open. For there, banging
from the hole in the roof and gracefully
waving to and fro, was about eight
feet :Of snake. And such a
snake. Boys. l don't believe |
am eXaggerating one particle when
tell YOU that il was as large around as
nv body. While | lay there and looked
at him and saw those smooth, swaying
motions, that enormous head and the
darting tongue that was kept in constant
play. felt perfectly conscious that this
snake could have swallowed me without
particle of trouble. And however
anxious | might have been for sport,
YOU know had no anxiety to explore
the interior of boa constructor. With
some faint idea of selling my life as
dearly as possible, slipped my hand
softly under the pillow and got hold of
my revolver. The motion. easy as it
was, IOuSed Jack, and he half turned.
Instantly two or three feet of the huge
shining body slipped down through the
root and the horrible head came nearer.
Jack saw it. then-that citizen OF the
world always so fertile in eXpedientS-
and with one wild shout of Great
Scott Jump for the cupboard, Archn
he flung himself in that direction. With
a glimpse of returning reason Scram-
bled after him, and II an instant we
were crouched on the floor, under the
lowest shelf, with the 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 non
sensieal fashion, with our self-control
entirely gone. We'll. if that snake
amt soIdI' was jacks version of it, but
| think he felt pretty serious when he
said it. After awhile we began to find
that it was too close in our cramped
quarters, and | opened the door a tiny
little bit so that we could get breath
of air. We found then that the candle
had gone out, and the room was as dark
as Egypt. But we could hear something
moving in that dark room-soft, Gid
ing motions that made US thank
full there were good, strong planks be-
tween Us and the something on the
other side. Time began to pass some
what heavily in the cupboard. pressed
my face close to the crack i'll the door to
get more fresh fair, and suddenly some
thing lightly brushed over my face
again and again. | didn't know what it
was al first. but all at once it flashed
upon me that it was the tongue of that
snake. That was more than ! could en-
dure. With a murmured warning,
Look out. Jack, Pm going TO fire. put
my revolver to the crack and fired at the
horrible creature that was caressing me
with its Shiny tongue. OF course, shut
up IN that little closet it sounded like
the very crack of doom, and. we were
deafened so that it was some time be-
fore we could hear anything. When we
recovered little. such sounds as did
greet our ears! Half dozen wild horses
couldn't have made more noise than
that snake was making. We could heal
it leap away up against the walls and
fall and twist and writhe, laShing about
with its tail and knocking down every
thing in tine room. At the same time
the air became so heavy with the rank,