rize as a delicacy that would be exclusively their own, cut a few
canes, twined them into a loose rope, made a noose round the writhing
creature's neck, and after one of the party had passed this rope over a
convenient bough the reptile was hauled up so that the tail was clear of
the ground and safe from the attacks of marauding ants.

Then the hunt was continued. Several splendid birds were knocked over,
and they were now high up in the river valley, where the great monitor
lizards haunted the sun-baked volcanic stones.

"Knock one of those down, Jackum," said Carey, who was anxious to see
how the blacks would deal with the tail-lashing creatures.

"Plenty, plenty," said the black, grinning; but he obeyed directly
after, sending his boomerang whizzing at one, which suddenly bounded on
to a rock and turned defiantly with open jaws upon those who had
interrupted his noon-tide sleep.

Carey had ocular proof that the nude blacks were cautious enough to keep
their skins clear of the fearful lash formed by the steel-wire-like
tails. For the boomerang struck the distended jaws with a sharp crack,
and the next moment the reptile was down, with its silvery-grey scales
flashing in the sun like oxidised silver, as it lashed its tail about
like a coil-whip. It was not round Jackum's legs, however, when he ran
up to recover his boomerang, but round and round the spear-shaft which
he held ready for the purpose.

A few minutes later the great lizard was dead. "Plenty cookie now,"
said Jackum, and they began to return, picking up their trophies as they
went back exactly over their trail.

"They'll only cut a piece out of the carpet snake," thought Carey.
"It's too big to take back."

But he was mistaken. That serpent was too fat and juicy, and promised
too many pleasant cookings, to be left behind, and it was soon lowered
down, to be dragged after the party by two of the blacks, who harnessed
themselves to the canes about the reptile's neck, the smooth hard scales
making the elongated body glide easily enough over the grass and sandy
earth.

"But I'm not going to ride in the canoe with that horrid beast,"
muttered Carey. "It's alive and moving still."

But he did, for, when all their game had been successively picked up and
they reached the edge of the lagoon, the great serpent was dragged in
and fitted itself in the bottom of the canoe, and the rest was thrown
fore and aft. Carey set his teeth, for he dared not let t