erally those just seen were the
closing ones of a performance, but as these were the first it seemed
that those to follow must be extraordinary indeed.

The next feat was the one shown to Bathurst, and was performed exactly
as upon that occasion, except that as the girl rose beyond the circle
of light she remained distinctly visible, a sort of phosphoric light
playing around her. Those in the veranda had come out now, the juggler
warning them not to approach within six feet of the pole.

Higher and higher the girl went, until those below judged her to be at
least a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. Then the light died out,
and she disappeared from their sight. There was silence for a minute or
two, and then the end of the pole could be seen descending without
her. Another minute, and it was reduced to the length it had been at
starting.

The spectators were silent now; the whole thing was so strange and
mysterious that they had no words to express their feeling.

The juggler said something which Mr. Hunter translated to be a request
for all to resume their places.

"That is a wonderful trick," the Doctor said to Bathurst. "I have never
seen it done that way before, but I once saw a juggler throw up a rope
into the air; how high it went I don't know, for, like this, it was done
at night, but it stood up perfectly stiff, and the juggler's attendant
climbed up. He went higher and higher, and we could hear his voice
coming down to us. At last it stopped, and then suddenly the rope fell
in coils on the ground, and the boy walked quietly in, just as that girl
has done now."

The girl now placed herself in the center of the open space.

"You will please not to speak while this trick is being performed," the
juggler said; "harm might come of it. Watch the ground near her feet."

A minute later a dark object made its appearance from the ground. It
rose higher and higher with an undulating movement.

"By Jove, it is a python!" the Doctor whispered in Bathurst's ear. A
similar exclamation broke from several of the others, but the juggler
waved his hand with an authoritative hush. The snake rose until its head
towered above that of the girl, and then began to twine itself round
her, continuously rising from the ground until it enveloped her with
five coils, each thicker than a man's arm. It raised its head above hers
and hissed loudly and angrily; then its tail began to descend, gradually
the coils unwound themselve