Part 7 (1/2)
”Looks like a skull of souess,” replied the professor ”It is part of the skull of an ophidian”
”An o' what?” ejaculated Toiant ophidian of palazoic ti awful, but I didn't suppose it was as bad as that”
”I suppose there is a story connected with it,” said Berwick
”Yes,” replied the professor, ”rather a tragic, though a coion”
”We would like to hear it,” suggested Jo
”Well,” began the professor slowly, ”ile with a wilderness of tangled vegetation, of arching palh above a e intent on the hunt for some animal upon which he can feed In front of hi branch there falls a rounded body like a s e creeps beneath, there is a sudden motion in the cable It comes to life and coils about the man
”With a shrill cry of fear, thethe slimy serpent about the throat in a desperate clutch But all in vain They writhe and struggle, but neither relax their hold, and they fall to the ground beneath the arching palo The ferns and palms die and bury the snake and his victi down the waste frooodness!” cried Tom ”Did you see it?”
”Not actually,” answered the professor ”All that happened a long tio What I know is that one day onan excavation we found the two skeletons, that of the man and the snake in such a position as to indicate the story I have told you I picked up the skull and the fancy took etting on with the business”
”Are you a zoologist?” asked Berwick
”No,” replied the professor ”I suppose you are thinking of enerally know me better that way, and--” he sist--a e back East where I lecture occasionally on y People haven't tih it's not so difficult to pronounce”
”Sure enough,” said Jim ”I do not know your name yet”
”Leta sheet of paper this is what he penned
Featheringstonehaughleigh
”You will always be just plain professor to h
”To resume,” went on the professor, ”for the past three or four years I have been down in the South Sea Islands prospecting Acting for an English syndicate which had an idea that there were soold or silver mines that could be developed”
”Did you find any?” questioned Jim
”None that orth while, but while I was there I came across an old sailor who had a story of a fabulously rich mine that was located on one of the islands He didn't know just where, and had been hunting for it for a goodfrom island to island in his quest”
”Couldn't he find it?”
”All he had to guide him was a rudely drawn map of the island that was located somewhere in the Southern seas He worked all alone, for he was afraid to share his secret with any for fear that they would kill hiet it all”
”Are they as bad as that down there?” asked Toood et on with ood turn on one occasion, and he confided his secret to me
I tried to help hiitude and latitude were rather vague, we couldn't locate it I helped him all I could, and when he was taken doith the fever, just before he died he gave me the map on the condition that if I found the reed to do”
”Do you think there was any foundation for his story?” asked Jih in it to give up anize an expedition to hunt for it It see to Brook's story, John Brook was his nalish vessel On one of his voyages, his shi+p was captured by pirates and the creere made prisoners They were carried to the pirates' lair on an island away from the usual track