Page 77 (1/2)

"You could grab one and play Tarzan," said Gunn, injecting soerous situation

"Only if I saw Jane--"

Gunn tensed at Pitt's sudden pause "What is it? Are you okay?"

When Pitt answered, his voice was barely louder than a whisper "I alrabbed what I took to be a thick vine But it was a snake the size of a drainpipe with a ator"

"What color?"

"Black with yellowish brown spots"

"A boa constrictor," explained Gunn "He , but he's not poisonous Pet him on the head for me"

"Like hell," Pitt snorted "If he so e

"Who?"

"My machete"

"What else do you see?"

"Several nificent butterflies, a nu on an alien planet, and a parrot too shy to ask for a cracker You wouldn't believe the size of the flowers growing out of nooks in the trees There are violets the size of my head"

Conversation dropped off as Pitt chopped his way through a low tree with dense branches He eating like a prizefighter in the last round of a chah fro to the leaves of the trees As he raised the machete, his arm brushed a vine armored with thorns that shredded his shirt sleeve and sliced his forearm as neatly as claws on a cat Luckily, the cuts were not deep or painful, and he disregarded them

"Stop the winch," he said as he felt firround beneath his feet "I'm down"

"Any sign of the galleon?" Gunn asked anxiously