Chapter 22 BEAUTY AND JO ENJOY THEMSELVES
　　SOMETHING certainly had happened to upset Pottersham and his three friends. After the door of thetower-room had been slammed and bolted, the men had gone clattering¹ down the stone steps. Theyhad come to the door that led into the gallery, and had opened it and gone out on to the gallery itself.
　　But before they could find the spiral staircase a little way along, Pottersham had tripped oversomething - something that hissed² like an engine letting off steam, and had wound itself round hislegs.
　　He yelled, and struck out at whatever it was. At first he had thought it was a man lying in wait forhim, who had pounced⁴ at his legs - but he knew it wasn't a man now. No man could hiss³ like that!
　　One of the men shone a torch down to see what was the matter with Pottersham. What he saw madehim yell and almost drop the torch.
　　'A snake! A snake bigger than any I've ever seen! It's got you, Pottersham!'
　　'Help me, man, help me!' shouted Pottersham, hitting down at the snake as hard as he could. 'It'ssqueezing my legs together in its coils.'
　　The other men ran to help him. As soon as they began to tug⁶, Beauty uncoiled and glided⁷ off into theshadows.
　　'Where's the horrible thing gone?' panted Pottersham. 'It nearly crushed my legs to powder!
　　Quick, let's go before it comes back. Where in the world did it come from?'
　　They took a few steps - but the snake was lying in wait for them! It tripped them all up by gliding⁸ inand out of their legs, and then began to coil itself round one of the men's waists.
　　Such a shouting and yelling and howling began then! If ever there were frightened men, those fourwere! No matter where they went, that snake seemed to be there, coiling and uncoiling, gliding,writhing, squeezing!
　　It was Jo who had set the python on to them, of course. Jo had stayed in the gallery while all thedisturbance upstairs had been going on, Beauty draped round her neck. The girl tried in vain to makeout what was happening.

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