aintly.

Ned Newton fired two more electric bullets into the still writhing body
of the boa.

"I guess he's all in," he called to Tom.

"Bless my horseradish! And so our friend seems to be," commented Mr.
Damon. "Have you anything with which to revive him, Tom?"

"Yes. Some ammonia. See if you can find a little water."

"I have some in my flask."

Tom mixed a dose of the spirits which he carried with him, and this,
forced between the pallid lips of the scientist, revived him.

"What happened?" he asked faintly as he opened his eyes. "Oh, yes, I
remember," he added slowly. "The boa----"

"Don't try to talk," urged Tom. "You're all right. The snake is dead,
or dying. Are you much hurt?"

Professor Bumper appeared to be considering. He moved first one limb,
then another. He seemed to have the power over all his muscles.

"I see how it happened," he said, as he sat up, after taking a little
more of the ammonia. "I was following the iguana, and when the big
lizard came to a stop, in a little hollow place in the ground, at the
foot of those two trees, I leaned over to slip a noose of rope about
its neck. Then I felt myself caught, as if in the hands of a giant,
and bound fast between the two trees."

"It was the big boa that whipped itself around you, as you leaned
over," explained Tom, as Ned came up to announce that the snake was no
longer dangerous. "But when it coiled around you it also coiled around
the two trees, you, fortunately slipping between them. Had it not been
that their trunks took off some of the pressure of the coils you
wouldn't have lasted a minute."

"Well, I was pretty badly squeezed as it was," remarked the professor.
"I hardly had breath enough left to call to you. I tried to fight off
the serpent, but it was of no use."

"I should say not!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my circus ring! one might
as well try to combat an elephant! But, my dear professor, are you all
right now?"

"I think so--yes. Though I shall be lame and stiff for a few days, I
fear. I can hardly walk."

Professor Bumper was indeed unable to go about much for a few days
after his encounter with the great serpent. He stretched out in a
hammock under trees in the camp clearing, and with his friends waited
for the possible return of Tolpec and the porters.

Ned and Tom made one or two short hunting trips, and on these occasions
they kept a lookout in the direction the Indian had taken when he went
away.