When he was nearly
squeezed to death he made a death-like groan which awoke the
Indian snake charmer who was asleep in one corner of the tent on
a pile of rugs. The man took in the situation at a glance, and
came to Billy's rescue, making the snake uncoil itself by playing
on a kind of bagpipe, a queer, weird, monotonous piece of music.
This charmed the snake and it uncoiled itself from Billy and,
swaying its body, crawled toward the snake charmer.
The second that Billy felt its coils slip from his body, he took
a long breath and ran from the tent not even stopping to wiggle
his head in thanks for his preservation. Once outside, he made
his way back to his own tent where he lay down on his pile of
straw to snatch a little sleep before daylight, as unconcerned as
if nothing had happened.
[Illustration]
_Billy and the Snakes_
The next day after Billy's midnight prowl which was Saturday,
there was great commotion among the circus people, for the
leading lady accused her rival, the brunette, of coming into her
dressing room while she slept and destroying her blonde wig;
while the pop-corn man said thieves had been at his stand and
broken his glass case and eaten his pop-corn, beside they had
spilled all his lemonade that he had intended using the next day;
the night watchman was going to be discharged for not attending
to his business; then the Indian snake charmer came along and
told them the thief had visited his tent but his snakes had
frightened him away.
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