Tiring of the noisy scene at length, Dwight went inside and lay down on a cool rattan lounge, leaving Nicky to help sort collection boxes with the curator. After reading awhile, he lay down the book with a sigh of content and looked idly up into the thatch that was thickly woven through the poles of their roof. Indolently gazing, he noticed a dark mass overhead, seemingly buried in the thatch. Examining it more carefully, he could see yellow and black marks, and concluded that it must be a tortoise shell that some one had left there. But the thing still fascinated him, and every little while he would look up at it again, while the others went on with the business of settling the house. Then a slight rustle in the thatch attracted him, and, gazing up at it steadily again, it suddenly resolved itself into a large snake, compactly coiled up in a kind of knot! Dwight’s jaw dropped as he detected the head and its bright eyes in the very center of the folds. “Good Lord, fellows!” he called out, jumping to his feet, “here’s a boa constrictor, a python!--up in our roof!” The curator jumped up the steps of the veranda in a bound. “Where! Show me him!” he demanded. “Right up there!” laughed Dwight, quivering with excitement. “And making himself at home just as nice as nice!” Sadok started to draw his parang, but the curator stopped him. “Wait!” he commanded. “We don’t want to spoil his skin.” Baderoon came running in. “Me kill’m! Me catch’m tailie! Me kill plenty snake on Bouru!” he yelled, begging the curator for permission to show them. The latter smiled quietly. “Clear out, boys--and watch the fun!” he said, picking up the lamp off the table and sweeping a lot of small things out of the way. “Ever see a native kill a python? I guess the house will stand it! Go get’m Baderoon-fellah!” Baderoon jumped for the rafters, and there was a violent commotion in the thatch as he dropped down with the tip of the boa’s tail in both hands. He and Sadok tugged away at it, soon ripping down about ten feet of the writhing coils, while the others ran laughing for the door. The commotion inside increased, and then there was a heavy thump and the crash of chairs and tables upset and flying about, and then Baderoon emerged, running down the steps with about thirty feet of snake behind him, twisting and lashing with its thick coils. The python swept everything with him and made a last stand with its neck hooked about a veranda post, while the boys yelled and catcalled with glee. Then Baderoon tore him loose and, running fast, flew with him toward the jungle, where, stopping suddenly, he snapped the snake’s long body like a whiplash and smashed his head against a tree. “Whee!” yelled Nicky, delightedly, from the veranda. “Me for the next one! Gee! I’d like to try that stunt!”