e tiger's hoed
away, for he's stopped twitchin'!--dare; de tiger comes agin!"

A gasp and clenching of the right hand seemed to warrant this
assumption. Then a yell rang through the hut; Moses displayed all, and
more than all his teeth, and the professor, springing up on one elbow,
glared fearfully.

"I'n't it awrful?" inquired Moses in a low tone. The professor awoke
mentally, recognised the situation, smiled an imbecile smile, and sank
back again on his pillow with a sigh of relief.

After that, when the skinning of the tiger was completed, the dreams
appeared to leave him, and all his comrades joined him in the land of
Nod. He was first to awake when daylight entered their hut the
following morning, and, feeling in a fresh, quiescent state of mind
after the excitement of the preceding night, he lay on his back, his
eyes fixed contentedly on the grand tiger-skin which hung on the
opposite wall.

By degrees his eyes grew wearied of that object, and he allowed them to
travel languidly upwards and along the roof until they rested on the
spot directly over his head, where they became fixed, and, at the same
time, opened out to a glare, compared to which all his previous glaring
was as nothing--for there, in the thatch, looking down upon him, was the
angular head of a huge python. The snake was rolled up in a tight coil,
and had evidently spent the night within a yard of the professor's head!
Being unable to make out what sort of snake it was, and fearing that it
might be a poisonous one, he crept quietly from his couch, keeping his
eyes fixed on the reptile as he did so. One result of this mode of
action was that he did not see where he was going, and inadvertently
thrust one finger into Moses' right eye, and another into his open
mouth. The negro naturally shut his mouth with a snap, while the
professor opened his with a roar, and in another moment every man was on
his feet blinking inquiringly.

"Look! zee snake!" cried the professor, when Moses released him.

"We must get him out of that," remarked Van der Kemp, as he quietly made
a noose with a piece of rattan, and fastened it to the end of a long
pole. With the latter he poked the creature up, and, when it had
uncoiled sufficiently, he slipped the noose deftly over its head.

"Clear out, friends," he said, looking round.

All obeyed with uncommon promptitude except the professor, who valiantly
stood his ground. Van der Kemp pulled the python violentl