The sailors were frightened nearly out of their wits when they first saw the long line of this monster’s body rising and falling on the waves, far in their rear. But the stout heart of Gutefundus knew no fear. He took in sail, and waited for his foe. But the serpent was in no hurry. He kept his distance for a couple of days, and then he sank into the water and disappeared. Gutefundus feared the snake had escaped him; but, a few days afterwards, it unexpectedly popped its head out of the water, close to the ship’s sides, and, in an instant, seized a sailor in its enormous jaws, and went down again with a tremendous splash. [Illustration: IT SEIZED A SAILOR IN ITS JAWS.] At that moment Gutefundus thought that, so far, he had done no good to any body, and had been the means of leading the poor sailor to his death. But he did not despair. The Sea Serpent would come again, he felt sure, and now that he knew the enemy’s tactics, he made his preparations. The next time the Sea Serpent reared his head over the ship’s side Gutefundus was ready for it. Barrels filled with water were arranged all along the sides of the deck, and the moment the great head was level with the deck, Gutefundus was in front of it; and, in a twinkling, he rolled a barrel into the gaping mouth of the creature. The astonished snake gulped down this unusual morsel with some difficulty; and Gutefundus took advantage of this interval of choking to plunge his long spear into one of the eyes of the monster. It sank heavily into the water; and, for several days, the ship sailed over a sea reddened with its blood. And that was the last of the great Sea Serpent. It is a pity that the Serpent’s body never rose to the surface, so that our hero might have had its skin. The next expedition of Gutefundus was to the Orkney Islands. Wonderful trees grew in the marshes of those distant isles. They bore eggs for fruit! At the proper season these egg-like fruits opened, and out dropped little ducks into the water, where they immediately began to swim about. These trees were called Bird Trees. It was rather a singular thing that, although the learned men wrote full accounts of these trees, and all the common people talked about them, nobody had ever seen one of them. Now, in Gutefundus’ country it sometimes happened that the poor people had nothing to eat, and there would be a famine. He wisely thought that if he could get some roots and slips of this Duck Tree, and plant them along all the water courses, in a few years there would be ducks enough for the very poorest family. It was considered a very dangerous thing to take a voyage to these savage islands, but Gutefundus decided he would do it.