Read Online The Eye of the Serpent by Philip Caveney - Free Book Online

only a few yards away. It was creeping forward, its head lowto the ground, its scraggy tail tucked between its legs. It bared its teeth, revealing rows of dripping fangs. A thick rope of saliva fell from its jaws.
    â€˜Get outa here!’ yelled Ethan, waving his arms, but the hyena showed no fear, just kept right on coming. Ethan said something colourful under his breath. ‘Tenacious sort, huh?’ he murmured. He glanced at Alec. ‘Watch this,’ he said. He lifted the revolver and discharged a shot a few feet in front of the hyena’s paws. The creature stopped for an instant. Then it came on again.
    â€˜This doesn’t make any sense,’ muttered Ethan. ‘It should have run. Why didn’t it run?’
    Alec shook his head. He had no idea, but he was beginning to feel very worried about this.
    â€˜All right, buster, you asked for it,’ said Ethan. ‘Time to make an example.’
    He lifted the revolver a second time and took aim at the creature’s chest. The gun cracked loudly and made Alec jump; and the hyena jolted as though it had been struck across the chest with a cricket bat; but it only faltered for a moment before coming on again. Ethan stared down at it in utter amazement. The other creatures were hurrying forward now, as though moving in to avenge their stricken comrade. Ethan lifted thegun a third time and fired again, blasting another hole in the hyena’s chest, inches away from the first. Once again the hyena lurched from the impact, but didn’t die. Ethan raised the gun a fraction and put a shot into the beast’s head, and this time it dropped in its tracks, its limbs twitching.
    â€˜That’s four bullets gone!’ gasped Alec.
    â€˜Yeah, I noticed that too,’ said Ethan, sounding ridiculously calm under the circumstances. Two more hyenas were running in to take the place of the fallen beast and Ethan pumped a shot into the first one’s head, killing it instantly; but before he could take aim at the next, it had thrown itself through the air and struck him hard in the chest, flinging him backwards onto the sand. The pistol flew from his grasp and he was obliged to throw up his hands and clamp them around the beast’s throat in a desperate effort to keep its slavering jaws at bay.
    For a moment Alec was frozen to the spot, but then, realizing that he had to go to Ethan’s aid, he ran over to where the American was struggling with his attacker and drove the blade of the knife down hard between the hyena’s shoulders. The beast gave a high-pitched shriek of agony, thentwisted away from Ethan and staggered off, yelping. Ethan sat up and stared frantically around for the gun. He saw it lying several feet away, half buried in the sand, and began to scramble towards it, but another low-pitched growl stilled him. He turned to see that another hyena was closing in for the kill.
    Alec acted instinctively. He put himself between Ethan and the beast and raised the knife. ‘Go for the gun,’ he told Ethan.
    â€˜Kid, no, move back!’ Ethan begged him.
    Alec shook his head. ‘It’s our only chance,’ he said. ‘Get the gun, Ethan.’
    Ethan nodded, then got onto his hands and knees. The hyena’s growl deepened and it braced itself, ready to leap at the boy. Alec took a firm grip on the handle of the knife and waited. He was dimly aware of a strange sound, a wild honking, as though a flight of geese was passing overhead, but he was looking into the hyena’s amber eyes and he had to concentrate, because the beast’s shoulder muscles were bunching as it steeled itself to leap.
    And then Alec heard Ethan’s voice from behind him.
    â€˜I’ve got the gun,’ he said, sounding calm again. ‘Move aside. Gently now,’
    Alec swallowed and did as he was told, keeping his gaze fixed on the hyena.
    â€˜Now, you brute,’ he heard Ethan say.
    And then there was the sharp metallic