cheek.

"Why, it's only a water-snake," he laughed; "it can't harm me."

But the next instant the snake gave him a powerful blow on the chest
that knocked him down. The boy was on his feet in a second and running
away, but the snake was after him! The ground was stony and scrubby; the
boy could not proceed very fast; and the snake was close at his heels.

Then the boy saw a big rock in front of him, and began to scale it.

"I do hope the snake can't follow me here!" he thought, but he had no
sooner reached the top of the rock than he saw that the snake was
following him.

Quite close to the boy, on a narrow ledge at the top of the rock, lay a
round stone as large as a man's head. As the snake came closer, the boy
ran behind the stone, and gave it a push. It rolled right down on the
snake, drawing it along to the ground, where it landed on its head.

"That stone did its work well!" thought the boy with a sigh of relief,
as he saw the snake squirm a little, and then lie perfectly still.

"I don't think I've been in greater peril on the whole journey," he
said.

He had hardly recovered from the shock when he heard a rustle above him,
and saw a bird circling through the air to light on the ground right
beside the snake. The bird was like a crow in size and form, but was
dressed in a pretty coat of shiny black feathers.

The boy cautiously retreated into a crevice of the rock. His adventure
in being kidnapped by crows was still fresh in his memory, and he did
not care to show himself when there was no need of it.

The bird strode back and forth beside the snake's body, and turned it
over with his beak. Finally he spread his wings and began to shriek in
ear-splitting tones:

"It is certainly Helpless, the water-snake, that lies dead here!" Once
more he walked the length of the snake; then he stood in a deep study,
and scratched his neck with his foot.

"It isn't possible that there can be two such big snakes in the forest,"
he pondered. "It must surely be Helpless!"

He was just going to thrust his beak into the snake, but suddenly
checked himself.

"You mustn't be a numbskull, Bataki!" he remarked to himself. "Surely
you cannot be thinking of eating the snake until you have called Karr!
He wouldn't believe that Helpless was dead unless he could see it with
his own eyes."

The boy tried to keep quiet, but the bird was so ludicrously solemn, as
he stalked back and forth chattering to himself, that he had to l