a gentle waving motion, rising
from amidst a tuft of leaves; and then, as the gliding of the folds
continued, the head descended in a slow, waving, swinging fashion, foot
after foot nearer and nearer to Lilla, a forked tongue flashing and
playing about the frightful jaws, and the hideous eyes fascinating the
poor girl, so that I saw her gradually moving towards it.

Slowly, and ever rising and falling, the huge serpent's head was lowered
foot after foot of its vast length while fold after fold was gliding
over the bough, and all this while I stood fixed to the earth as in the
nightmare of a horrible dream.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

WHAT FOLLOWED THE ESCAPE.

I said at the end of the last chapter that it was like being in the
nightmare of some horrible dream. I repeat that assertion; for as I
recall my sensations I see again the horrible swaying head playing
gently up and down, nearer and nearer, the sun glistening on the
burnished coils, while others were hidden, to have their presence
revealed by the quivering of twig and trembling of leaf, as they passed
fold over fold, the monstrous reptile playing, as it were, with its
victim, and approaching in a slow leisurely manner; but it was with the
sense that in an instant it could fling itself upon its prey with the
speed, force, and certainty of a well-cast lasso. It was the play of
the cat tribe with prey; for I knew the mighty strength and elasticity
of the coils--how they could dart, plunge, and then be rolled one upon
the other round a helpless body in a hideous knot--how the knot would
tighten till bones cracked and splintered, and the victim was reduced to
a shapeless mass, ready to receive the horrible saliva of the monster
previous to deglutition.

I could only stand with tottering knees, parted lips, staring eyes, and
painfully drawn breath, longing to engage in the unequal fight, or to,
at least, make some noise to divert the horrible beast; but my mouth and
throat were dry--I could not utter a sound. I was numbed in body, but
the mental anguish was fearful, for all activity seemed to have fled to
the seat of thought and in imagination I saw all that was to follow.

And all this time--a time whose duration seemed to me hours--Lilla did
not move. At first, while being drawn under the loathsome reptile's
fascination, she had gradually leaned towards it, till, fixed of eye,
she had stopped perfectly motionless, as inch after inch her intended
murderer approa