wings, a
flight of cranes and egrets arose from the bank some little distance
farther down. Dark forms were moving among the reeds. All the instincts
of a constant familiarity with peril alert within him, Laurence had in a
moment replaced the case and its contents. His Express was grasped in
readiness as he peered forth eagerly from his place of concealment. He
was the crafty, ruthless slaver once more.

Then the expression, stealthy, resolute, which his discovery had evoked,
faded, giving way to one of half-interested curiosity, as he saw that
the potential enemies--more or less redoubtable assailants--were merely
a few small boys, wandering along the reed-fringed bank, jabbering
light-heartedly as they strolled.

Suddenly there was a splash, a smothered cry, and a loud burst of shrill
laughter. The sooty imps were dancing and capering with glee, gazing at
and chaffing one of their number who had fallen from the bank--high and
perpendicular there--into the water among the reeds. But almost as
suddenly the cachinations turned to a sharp yell of terror and warning.
The reeds swayed in a quivering line of undulation, as though something
were moving through them--something swift and mighty and terrible--and
so it was. The black boy, who could swim like a fish, had thrown himself
clear of the reeds, deeming his chances better in the open water, but
after him, its long grisly snout and cruel beady eyes flush with the
surface, glided a large crocodile.

Half instinctively the unseen spectator put up his piece, then dropped
it again. He might shoot the reptile, but what then? All their plans
would be upset--the villages would be alarmed, and his own life greatly
jeopardized. Too steep a price by far to pay, to save one wretched
little black imp from being devoured by a crocodile, he told himself.
The road to wealth did not lie that way; and the cruel sneer that
drooped his lips as he lowered his weapon was not good to behold, as he
stood up to witness the end of this impromptu hunt, whose quarry was
human.

The boys on the bank were shouting and screaming, partly for help,
partly in the hope of scaring the hideous saurian. That wily reptile,
however, heeded them not one atom. His great jaws opened and closed with
a snap--but not on the crunch of human flesh, not on the crackle of
human bones. The wretched little native, with incredible dexterity, had
swerved and dived, just eluding the hungry jaws by no more than a hair's