f a tree with all the
branches rubbed off. Well, I never did!"

For at that moment the reptile crawled a little further from the water,
raised its head, and looked to right and left, and then subsided again
in the hot sunshine, sinking partially into the mud.

"Rummy sort o' tree that, eh, Billy?" said Smith.

"Sort o' tree!" cried Wriggs, in a tone of thorough disgust. "Why, I
call it a himposition. What does a thing mean by going on like that? I
could ha' sweered as it warn't alive."

"Hold your row, the gents is a-going to shoot."

They stood watching, for Drew had been busy changing one of the
cartridges in his gun for another containing a ball.

"It's of no use to shoot it," said Oliver, "and I don't think you could
hit it in a vital place."

"I'm going to try," said Drew quietly, as Panton followed his example.

"Yes," said the latter, "if we are to stay in this island or whatever it
is, we can't afford to share the place with a creature like that. These
things are very dangerous."

"Hist! Tommy," whispered Wriggs, excitedly, "he can hear what they
says, and he don't believe they can hit him and hurt him. Did yer see
him smile?"

"Well, I call it a laugh, matey. Yes, they've got a nice open sort o'
countenance, them crockydiles. What a time it must take'm to clean
their teeth of a morning!"

"Ay, and to pick 'em after dinner. Would one o' them tackle a man?"

"Yes, or a cow either. They've got a way of--I say, just look at him."

Wriggs was all attention, and the three naturalists as well; for, after
opening its mouth and displaying its tremendous gape, the reptile slowly
turned round so as to face toward the water from which it had crawled,
and then subsided, lying so close and still in the sand and mud that it
more than ever resembled the trunk of some old tree.

The position now for a shot was not so satisfactory, as it in all
probability meant the disappearance of the reptile at its first plunge;
but all the same Drew raised his piece and gave his companions a sharp
look, Panton raising his double gun as well for the next shot.

But Oliver held up his hand.

"Don't shoot," he whispered. "I want to watch the brute for a few
minutes. Let's see."

He had a reason for speaking; naturalist-like, he never lost an
opportunity for observing the habits of the different creatures he came
across, and he had noticed a couple of crane-like birds coming stalking
along from the far side of t