en still amongst the foliage around, where he
could suddenly start out upon the big black if he should enter the
shelter.

But as the faint rustling continued, he awakened to the recollection of
the previous night's alarm, for it now dawned upon him that the movement
was not made by a human being, but by one of the reptiles with which he
had peopled the thatch.

This was soon plain enough, and whether venomous or not it was enough to
startle the watcher, as a serpent some seven or eight feet in length
came into sight, travelling through the undergrowth, with its scales
ever changing in tint as its folds came more or less into connection
with the light that penetrated the leaves.

Murray felt the natural disgust for the lithe creature and dread of the
poison fangs of which it might be the bearer, but at the same time he
could not help feeling a certain admiration for its wondrous activity,
the power with which it intertwined itself among the twigs and in loops
and wreaths and coils, while the light played upon the burnished scales
in silver greys, chestnuts and ambers, and softly subdued and floating
over it as if in a haze of light, played bronze green and softened
peacock blues.

For a time the serpent seemed to be making its way towards him, and
there were moments when he felt certain that he was its goal, and that
two brilliant points of light shot from the two hard jewel-like eyes
were marking him down.

Then all at once there was a sharp movement as if a spring had been let
loose, and the midshipman felt paralysed for a few moments, before his
hand glided to the cutlass and he began to draw it slowly from its
sheath ready to make a cut, for, following upon the sharp spring-like
movement the serpent had disappeared, the next sound that met his ears
being that of the reptile trickling, as it were, through the undergrowth
in his direction.

For a few moments he could not stir, and the recollection of what he had
read about the fascination displayed by snakes seemed to have a
paralysing effect upon him, till his reason suggested that it was the
eye that was said to produce the power described, while now the reptile
had dropped out of sight amongst the undergrowth. His dread was
increased, though, by the fact that the sun was rapidly passing out of
sight, according to its way in the tropics, and it began to seem to him
that he would be at the mercy of what might probably be a venomous
creature approaching slowl