of the small venomous snakes. We
could see them as they climbed up the steps of the main-hatch.

"Even the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus came up; but, when the mad
elephant tried, the steps broke under his weight, and he remained
below. Still, we had a problem.

"There wasn't a gun among us, and to go down and face those beasts with
handspikes was out of the question.

"I was in the mizzen crosstrees with the skipper, the second mate, the
helmsman, and a couple of Sou'wegians who had been working aft. In the
maintop were the first mate and three or four of the crew, and in the
foretop were the rest, all bunched together and waiting for
instructions.

"The skipper gave them.

"'Go down out o' that,' he yelled, 'and drive them down the hatch!'

"But not a man moved. Who would? He told me to go over and lash the
wheel amidships, and I declined, as politely as I could. The wheel was
spinning back and forth, the ship rolling in the trough, and the upper
spars, hanging by their gear, slatting back and forth as the ship
rolled.

"Down on deck were those murderous wild beasts, nosing round, and only
waiting for the chance of getting together. I told this to the skipper.

"'Right,' he said. 'Perhaps they'll kill each other.'

"This seemed possible a few minutes later, when the tiger and the lion
met face to face. They glared and growled and spit, just like two huge
tomcats, then they sailed into each other.

"It was a lively scrap. They fenced and dodged and nipped as they
could, but their motions were too swift to give either a good chance at
a bite. They were in the air half the time, on their backs the other
half, and it seemed an even fight until the tiger, in one of his
plunges, bumped into the python, who had been squirming around the
deck.

"Now, a python is not poisonous; but, nevertheless, he has a strong
grip of jaw. He closed his jaws on the tiger's nose, and then began a
funny sight. The big, striped brute could not shake him off; but he
backed away, snarling and screaming with rage and pain, forward round
the house, and aft on the other side to the space abaft the main-hatch,
the snake writhing like a whip-lash, and the tiger never making an
effort to use his forepaws.

"It seemed as though hereditary fear had seized him, for with a few
digs and blows he could have clawed him off. This fight ended by the
writhing python getting too close to the boa-constrictor, who happened
to be nosing his way ac