Without moving the flaming torch, he raised his right hand slowly and took careful aim at the great head not two yards away, his finger tightening on the trigger until the slightest further pressure would cause its release. Then came a flash and a deafening crack. He dropped the blazing fagot and ran out upon the open bank where Miguel was sitting, still too dazed for speech. When he stopped he became aware of a thrashing noise, coming from the direction of the hut; then the entire structure fell with a crash--on top of the bunch of palm fiber now flickering its last. Soon little tongues of fire leaped up, lapping eagerly at the dry leaves of which their shelter had been composed. In a moment the entire heap was a mass of flames that lighted up the scene as bright as day. And in the midst of the conflagration he saw the writhing, lashing coils of the giant serpent that did not cease their movements, even after the fire had died down to a pile of feebly glowing embers. CHAPTER XVIII WHEN THE WATER RAN HIGH The two men had watched the burning of their hut until the last flickering blaze had died; Miguel as in a trance, and David spellbound by the sight. The loss of their abode, while causing them some inconvenience, was not a calamity, for they easily could build another. The visits of the great snake, however, was another matter. “The _sucurujú_ never lives alone,” Miguel said finally when he had recovered from the shock of his experience. They were watching the huge coils writhe in the glowing embers. “What do you mean?” David asked. “There are always a pair together. When one goes out and remains away any length of time the other one goes to look for it. And if you kill one of them, the other will follow you until it has avenged its mate.” “Then you think there is another snake around here?” “Yes,” Miguel said. “We had better not stay at this end of the island tonight.” “The thing that puzzles me, is where did this monster come from?” David said. “I can understand now why the creature that visited our hut did not leave tracks, but I don’t see how we could have overlooked it in walking about the island. It is so big we couldn’t have missed it unless it lived in a cave, and--there are no caves.” “Anacondas live in holes in the riverbank,” Miguel explained. “That’s why we didn’t see this one. It came up from the water while we were watching in the forest. And the other is liable to be along any minute, so we had better go.”