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116 slashed right and left with pain. Then it raised its head once more and darted straight for Dick.

Its eyes blazed like twin diamonds, and it may truthfully be said that for a moment the owner of the Dashaway was dazed.

But now a most unexpected thing happened.

Dash had wandered off in the brush and been forgotten.

He leaped into view with a bound and coming up behind the snake caught it in the neck with his strong teeth.

There was a grating sound, and the head of the snake twisted painfully and then dropped limply.

"Good for Dash!" cried Don, and rushing up, he fired his pistol at the snake's body, literally cutting it in half.

Then Dash dropped the quivering body, and to settle matters, Robert Menden crushed the head with a sharp stone.

It was several minutes before anybody recovered his former composure.

"Dash am de greatest dog wot ever lived!" cried Danny, and hugged the canine around the neck. At this Dash wagged his tail furiously, as though he understoond perfectly. But strange to say, now the snake was dead, the dog could not be coaxed to go anywhere near it.