rmidable undertaking enough, yet Gerard was strong
and athletic, and his courage was now the courage of despair.

He could hear the muttered conversation of his human enemies on the
bank, where they sat overlooking the river a little higher up than his
place of concealment, and again he looked at the alligators. The latter
were moving again, slowly gliding to and fro, approaching somewhat
nearer his position. Were they beginning to scent his presence? It
seemed like it, from their uneasy suspicious movements.

And now Gerard made up his mind that if he was to fight, he must himself
be out of the water. But how? seeing that the clay bank was
perpendicular, and the bush that screened him was not high enough to
shelter him, even if he could get out of the water, not to mention the
prodigious rustle which would certainly betray him to the quick ears of
the watchful savages, did he attempt to spring into its branches. Ah!
He thought he saw a plan. By cutting a step or two in the clay bank, he
could raise himself almost entirely out of the water. It would only be
up to his knees, at any rate, and he could hold on to a bough with his
left hand, while he fought desperately for his life with his right. But
he must abandon his rifle.

And then his very reluctance to do this suggested to him a further
expedient. Those terrible jaws must be held at something more than mere
arm's length. Fishing out of his pocket some _reimpjes_, or strips of
raw hide, which no dweller in the South African _veldt_, somehow or
other, ever seems to be without, he spliced his great knife quickly but
securely to the end of the rifle, thus turning the latter into a most
efficient bayonet, instead of being forced to abandon it. Having thus
made his preparations, he again peered forth to watch the alligators.

And what a lifetime did it seem to him, standing there submerged, a
hunted fugitive, the spears of his enemies lying in wait for him on the
bank, possibly the stake of torture, the ravenous jaws of the loathsome
monsters below. The hot rays of the sun, mounting higher and higher,
beat down fiercely upon his hiding-place, which, in this instance, was
fortunate, since it neutralised the shivery chill engendered by his long
immersion. Minutes seemed hours. He could not hold out for ever.
Exhaustion would come upon him, and then--Ha! Now for it!

The alligators, which had been cruising to and fro in an aimless sort of
way, were now hea