and
flashing with light, and watched by the hundreds upon hundreds of
glowing opal eyes which reflected the cone of flame still going on
spiralling upwards and burning more fiercely than ever.

What is going to be the end? Murray asked himself. Will the serpent
conquer and the great black priest fall faint and powerless, strangled
to death by the folds of the reptile, which were ever tightening round
breast and neck? But they were ever loosening as well, and at one time
the boy's chest expanded with a glow of satisfaction, for it seemed to
him that the man was gaining the mastery over his enemy, having
succeeded in grasping the serpent's neck with both hands, and begun to
swing and whirl it round and round, whizzing through the air level with
his neck. Murray could almost believe that it was whirled round so fast
that he could even hear it hum and then snap and crack as if it were
some mighty whip-lash with which the great black was flogging the golden
darkness of the night.

The middy panted again, and there was a feeling of constriction about
his chest, just as if the serpent or one of the many serpents that at
times, it seemed, had thrown a fold about him--yes, and another had been
cast about his neck, for in the struggle going on before his eyes the
reptile seemed to be gaining the best of it once more, and the man was
weakening rapidly.

He wondered too that the crowd eddying around remained so silent. It
seemed to him only natural that they should give vent to their feelings
with shouts of joy when the priest looked successful, and groanings when
the serpent had him circled tightly in its toils.

But all the same the midshipman in his excitement realised that he was
as silent as the rest, and stood there, with the perspiration trickling
down from brow to cheek, watching and watching for the end which seemed
as if it would never come.

It must be, he was sure, a struggle that could only end in one way--
death for one of the combatants. And yet the lad felt doubt creep in,
and he asked himself whether it might not end in death for both.

There were moments when, as he saw the great negro struggle and free
himself partially from the serpent's folds, he foresaw the reptile's end
in the glowing fire, which would become man's colleague as well as
servant, and he could almost see the monster writhing and curling up in
the roaring flames to which it was apparently adding fresh fury.

But the next moment the