laid open for the gentlemen to see its contents, Mike took half a dozen steps backward as fast as he could, and with his eye fixed upon the open basket he was in the act of turning to run, when he saw everyone else stand fast.
"Lies pretty quiet at the bottom," said Harry, advancing with Phra,
Mr. Kenyon keeping close behind.
"Only a little one," said the young Prince, rather contemptuously.
"Here! I say, Sree; what do you mean by this?" cried Harry.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Phra. "This is one of your tricks, Hal."
"That it isn't," cried the boy.
"Where is the snake, Sree?" said Mr. Kenyon. "The basket's empty."
CHAPTER III
SREE'S PRISONER
The hunter took a couple of steps forward, looked down into the basket, looked up, half stunned with astonishment, looked in the lid, then outside it, lifted up the basket and peered under it, threw down the lid, felt in his sarong, and then, as there was no heavy boa twelve or fourteen feet long in its folds, he turned fiercely to the two men in turn to ask them angrily in their own tongue what they had done with the snake.
Both of them felt in their sarongs and began to protest volubly that they had not touched it; that it was there just now, for they had heard it and felt the weight. It was there – it must be there – and their master had better look again.
"It's a conjuring trick," said Phra, who looked annoyed.
"I had nothing to do with it, then," said Harry. "I hadn't, honour bright," he added hurriedly as his companion looked doubtingly at him. "Here, Sree, have you begun to learn juggling?"
"No, Sahib; it was a lovely snake, all yellow, with big brown spots and purple shadows all over the dark parts. One of these sons of wickedness must have taken it out to sell it to some ship captain to carry away. Surely Sree would not try to cheat the good Sahibs and his Prince by playing tricks like an Indian juggler. Here, Michael; you heard the snake inside before the master came?"
"Yes," said Mike, who looked quite brave now, as he approached and looked into the basket searchingly. "I'm sure I heard it plainly, but there's no snake here now. There has been one here, though, for you can smell it."
"Yes, there has been one here," cried Harry eagerly. "Then where is it gone?"
"Something dreadful has blinded all our eyes, Sahib, so that we cannot see. Thrust in your hand and feel if it is there."
Harry shrank for the moment, for the idea of feeling after a snake that had been rendered invisible was startling; but feeling ashamed the next moment of his superstitious folly, he plunged his hand down into the basket, felt round it, and stood up.
"There's nothing in there," he said.
"Well, you could see that there was not," said his father shortly.
"But there has been one there quite lately," said Harry. "Smell my fingers, Phra."
"Pouf! Serpent!" cried the young Prince, with a gesture of disgust.
"It must have got away."
Sree took hold of the basket, bent down into it, looked all round, and then to the surprise of all he stood it up again, turned it round a little, and then jumped in, to stand upright.
The surprise came to an end directly, for Sree pointed downward, and as he did so he thrust his toes through the bottom of the basket, where no hole had been apparent, but which gave way easily to the pressure of the man's foot from within, thus showing that it must have been broken at that one particular place.
"What! A hole in the bottom for the reptile to crawl out? That was wise of you, Sree!"
"I was wise, Sahib, and the basket had no hole in it when we put the snake in."
"Then it must have made one, and forced its way through."
Sree was silent, and looked at Mike as if waiting for him to speak. But Mike had not the least intention of speaking, and stood with his lips pinched together, perfectly dumb.
"Why, of course!" cried Harry excitedly; "I see now. Mike gave the basket a tremendous kick as he went by it, and startled the serpent, and made it swing about. Why, Mike, you must have broken a hole through then."
"Master Harry, I – " began Mike.
"Yes, Sahib, that was it; he broke a hole through, and once the snake's head was through he would force his way right out."
"One minute," said Mr. Kenyon rather anxiously; "tell me, Harry: are you perfectly sure that the snake was there?"
"Certain, father."
"And you saw Michael kick the basket?"
"Oh yes, father; and Michael knows he did."
"That's right enough, sir; but I didn't mean to let the brute out."
"No, no, of course not," said Mr. Kenyon anxiously: "but if the serpent was in that basket a short time ago and is gone now, it must either be in one of the rooms here by the verandah or just beneath the house."
"Ow!" ejaculated Mike, with a look of horror, as he glanced round; and then he shouted as he pointed to an opening in one corner of the verandah, where a great bamboo had been shortened for the purpose of ventilating the woodwork beneath the bungalow, "That's the way he has gone, sir; that's the way he has gone."
It seemed only too probable, for it was just the kind of place in which a fugitive, gloom-loving reptile would seek for a hiding-place; while as if to prove the truth of Mike's guess there was a sharp, squeaking sound heard somewhere below the house, and one after the other three rats dashed out of the opening, darted across the verandah, and sprang into the garden, disappearing directly amongst the plants.
"Yes," said Mr. Kenyon; "the reptile seems to have gone under the house."
"And he will clear away all the rats, Sahib," said Sree, in a tone of voice which seemed to add, "and what could you wish for better than that?"
"But I think that my son and I would rather have the rats, my man.
What do you say, Hal?"
"Yes, father; of course. We can't live here with a horrible thing like that always lying in wait for us. How long did you say it was, Sree?"
"Two men and a half, Sahib."
"And that's a man and a half too long, Sree. What's to be done?"
Sree looked disconsolately at the merchant, and slowly rubbed his blacking-brush-like hair.
"The Sahib told me to bring everything I could find in the jungle, and this was a lovely snake, all yellow and brown and purple like tortoiseshell. The Sahib would have been so pleased."
"No doubt, if I could have got it shut up safely in some kind of cage; but you see you have let it go."
"If the Sahib will pardon me," said the man humbly.
"Of course; yes, it was not your fault, but Michael's. Well, Michael, how are you going to catch this great snake?"
