if I
saw him at all, I thought it was a great big vine hanging from that
tree! Ugh! look at him stretch his mouth, would you? Andy, thanks to
your sharp eyes I'm here, instead of in his slimy folds. I guess he
could crush an ox. They say nothing can stand the pressure, once they
get a couple of folds around."

"Is it a python?" gasped Andy, his horrified eyes glued on the spectacle
of the slightly swaying ten feet of snake that hung from the limb of a
great tree, in part as thick as Frank's thigh.

"About the same thing," replied Frank. "Down here they call them
anacondas, and in other parts of the world they're boa-constrictors. I
guess the whole bunch belongs to the same family of squeezers. But that
fellow is in our way."

"Well, yes, if you're still determined to run the aeroplane across lots
toward this side of the opening," Andy remarked with a shudder. "Why,
perhaps that old chap might get gay, and grab hold, just when we
expected to go sailing off. That would be a calamity, not only for him,
but the Bird boys in the bargain."

"All right. Then he's got to get his," Frank observed.

"What are you going to do?" demanded the other, nervously.

"Take a crack at his head," came the reply. "Once let a flat-nosed
bullet from this little Marlin hard shooter smack him on the coco, and
there'll be a funeral in the anaconda family."

"But for goodness' sake make sure work of it, Frank. What if you just
wounded the monster? He'd come whirling along at us like a
hurricane. And I'm sure he must be thirty feet long, if he's a
dozen. Look at the thickness of his neck, would you? Be mighty careful,
for his head's swinging a bit, you notice. That was what made me get
sight of him. Say, Frank!"

"Well, hurry up. He may take a notion to move off, and I'd lose my
chance, Andy."

"How'd it do for me to get some fire, and shoo him away?" suggested his
cousin.

"Don't know how it would work," replied Frank, smiling a little,
however, at the faith Andy seemed to have in a blazing brand, now that
he could look back to his late experience with the jaguar. "Never heard
that snakes were afraid of fire. And besides, there's no need. Now keep
quiet, and watch. You'll see something worth while; but be ready to jump
clear."

He had already dropped down on one knee. The Marlin stock rested
against his cheek, and his eyes sighted along the barrel. Andy fairly
held his breath, his startled eyes glued on that swaying head of the
mo