feel the pressure increasing more rapidly than
he could draw the breath into his already painfully labouring lungs; and
he vainly strove to utter a cry to his companion for help. His elbows
were being forced into his ribs with such irresistible pressure that he
momentarily expected to feel and hear the bones crack beneath it, while
the compression of his chest was rapidly producing a feeling of
suffocation, when, above the loud singing in his ears, he caught the
faint click of Mildmay's weapon. Then the great threatening head
suddenly drooped, the constricting coils relaxed their pressure and
opened out, allowing the professor to struggle free of their encircling
folds, the huge body writhed convulsively, the great tail threshing down
the grass during the space of a full minute or more; then the writhings
gradually subsided, and finally the great reptile lay stretched almost
at full length before them, dead, with a bullet from Mildmay's rifle
through its brain.

"Thanks!" gasped the professor, as he wrung Mildmay's hand, "that was a
narrow escape for me, my friend, and I am indebted to you for my life.
I could do nothing for myself, and even your companionship would have
been of but little avail had you not acted so promptly. Another fifteen
seconds in those great coils would have finished me off altogether. I
thank you, Captain, and if ever the opportunity should occur I will do
the same for you."

"Of course you will, old chap, I know that," answered Mildmay, heartily;
"and likely enough the opportunity may occur ere long. One never knows.
What a monster! Why, he must measure at least five and thirty feet, if
an inch. He is the biggest I have ever seen. Now, how do you feel?
Would you rather go back to the ship, or shall we go on?"

"Oh, we will go on, of course," answered von Schalckenberg. "I am not a
penny the worse for my little adventure, except that I feel bruised all
over, and I expect I shall be too stiff to move to-morrow. The greater
the reason why I should move to-night. Is not that so, my friend?"

"That, of course, is for you to say," laughed Mildmay. "Such a narrow
squeak as you have had is enough to try any man's nerves. But, if you
would rather go on, I am your man."

"Come, then," said the professor; "but let us pick our steps. One
adventure of that kind, in a single night, is enough for any man."

After walking a few yards further the two men found themselves at the
edge of the di