ing rock half a
dozen feet beneath the water. Into this cavity her long hard nose flung
her dead victim, and her four powerful hands covered the entrance to the
water cave with sand and rock. More than satisfied with her morning's
work, the Green One came to the surface of the water to bask in the
glowing warmth of the morning sunlight.

She took a survey upon the world, made up of low-lying shores and a hot
blue sky. She saw a river, broad and oily, and a strange white object
which she had seen often before smoking towards her.

And that was the last thing she ever saw; for Bones, on the bridge of
the _Zaire_, squinted along the sights of his Express and pressed the
trigger. Struck in the head by an explosive bullet, the Green One went
out in a flurry of stormy water.

"Thus perish all rotten old crocodiles," said Bones, immensely pleased
with himself, and he placed the rifle on the rack.

"What the devil are you shooting at, so early in the morning?" asked
Hamilton.

He came out in his pyjamas, sun helmet on his head, pliant mosquito
boots reaching to his knees.

"A crocodile, sir," said Bones.

"Why waste good ammunition on crocodiles?" asked Hamilton; "was it
something exceptional?"

"A tremendous chap, sir," said the enthusiastic Bones, "some fifty feet
long, and as green as----"

"As green!" repeated Hamilton quickly, "where are we?"

He looked with a swift glance along the shore for landmarks.

"I hope to goodness you have not shot old M'zooba," he said.

"I don't know your friend by name," said Bones, "but why shouldn't I
shoot him?"

"Because, you silly ass," said Hamilton, "she is a sort of sacred
crocodile."

"She was never so sacred as she is now, sir, for:

"She's flapping her wings in the crocodile heaven," said Bones,
flippantly; "for I'm one of those dead shots--once I draw a bead on an
animal----"

"Get out a canoe and set the woodmen to dive for the Green One," said
Hamilton to his orderly, for a shot crocodile invariably sinks to the
bottom and can only be recovered by diving.

They brought it to the surface, and Hamilton groaned.

"It is M'zooba," he said in resigned exasperation. "Oh, Bones, what an
ass you are!"

Bones said nothing, but walked to the stern of the ship and lowered the
blue ensign to half-mast--a piece of impertinence which Hamilton did not
discover till a long time afterwards.

Now whatever might be the desire or wish of Hamilton, and however much
he migh