"Wait till you know what your fate is to be. Boys, set his feet free,
and then follow me, with him between you."

The cords which held Frank's feet were released, and he was lifted to a
standing position. Then he was marched along after Gage, who led the
way.

"Good-by," Frank called back.

Into the woods he was marched, and finally Gage came to a halt,
motioning for the others to stop.

"Look!" he cried, pointing; "there is the serpent vine!"

On the ground before them, lay a mass of greenish vines, blossoming over
with a dark red flower. Harmless enough they looked, but, as Gage drew a
little nearer, they suddenly seemed to come to life, and they began
reaching toward his feet, twisting, squirming, undulating like a mass of
serpents.

"There!" shouted Leslie--"there is the vine that feeds on flesh and
blood! See--see how it reached for my feet! It longs to grasp me, to
draw me into its folds, to twine about my body, my neck, to strangle
me!"

The sailors shuddered and drew back, while Frank Merriwell's face was
very pale.

"It did fasten upon me," Gage continued. "If I had not been ready and
quick with my knife, it would have drawn me into its deadly embrace. I
managed to cut myself free and escape."

Then he turned to Frank, and the dancing light in his eyes was not a
light of sanity.

"Merriwell," he said, "the serpent vine will end your life, and you'll
never bother me any more!"

He leaped forward and clutched the helpless captive, screaming:

"Thus I keep my promise!"

And he flung Frank headlong into the clutch of the writhing vine!

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE SERPENT VINE.

With his hands bound behind his back, unable to help himself, Frank
reeled forward into the embrace of the deadly vine, each branch of which
was twisting, curling, squirming like the arms of an octopus.

He nearly plunged forward upon his face, but managed to recover and keep
on his feet.

He felt the vine whip about his legs and fasten there tenaciously, felt
it twist and twine and crawl like a mass of serpents, and he knew he was
in the grasp of the frightful plant which till that hour he had ever
believed a creation of some romancer's feverish fancy.

Frank did not cry out. A great horror seemed to come upon him and benumb
his body and his senses.

He could feel the horrid vines climbing and coiling about him, and he
was helpless to struggle and tear them away. He knew they were mounting
to his neck, where the