by, it will be as well, while we are on their
backs, to keep our feet as high up as we can, lest an alligator should
take a fancy to our toes; though, as the brutes are of no great size, we
haven't much to fear from them."

I thought Gerald was joking; but he was perfectly in earnest, though the
danger we were to run did not in the slightest degree trouble him.

I followed his advice when, after wading a short distance, my horse
began to swim. Shortly afterwards, as its body was completely immersed,
I slipped off its back, taking care to hold on to its mane, near the
crupper, with one hand, while I struck out with the other. Gerald
himself, being so much lighter, stuck on, and guiding his horse to a
shelving part of the bank, regained the firm ground.

I was still in the water, when, looking up the stream, he shouted out to
me,--"Make haste, make haste, Barry! for here comes an ugly-looking
customer it would be as well not to encounter in the water."

As may be supposed, I was making all the haste I could; for I had no
fancy to remain in the river longer than necessary, with the possibility
of being seized by an alligator, even though it might be one not large
enough to swallow me at a gulp. I saw that Gerald was more excited than
usual: as he held his horse's bridle, he kept stamping and moving about
in his eagerness. I exerted myself to the utmost, and at length had the
satisfaction of finding my horse's feet touch the shore; when I
immediately scrambled on its back and rode up the bank.

"Look there!" cried Gerald; "that brute would be a more unpleasant
opponent than even a big alligator."

He pointed, as he spoke, to a huge serpent--which, I concluded, was a
boa-constrictor--coiled round the broken stem of a palm-tree, and, with
head erect, floating leisurely down the river.

"I only wish it would come nearer!" exclaimed Gerald. "I think I could
manage to hit it and blow its head off."

He fired as he spoke, but missed; and the serpent, turning its head,
gave a hiss at us, though it did not attempt to quit its raft. From the
way it moved its tail, which served as a rudder, I believe that it could
easily have guided itself to the shore; and as it was big enough to have
crushed not only one of us, but either of our horses, in its powerful
folds, I felt especially anxious to avoid it.

Gerald quickly reloaded his weapon. "Fire, Barry--fire!" he cried out;
"and if you miss, I'll have another shot."

As