. All were silent
and hardly breathed. Ibarra grasped the handle of the sharp knife
convulsively.

Now the struggle seemed to be at an end and the head of the youth
appeared, to be greeted with joyful cries. The eyes of the old women
filled with tears. The pilot climbed up with one end of the rope in
his hand and once on the platform began to pull on it. The monster
soon appeared above the water with the rope tied in a double band
around its neck and underneath its front legs. It was a large one,
as Leon had said, speckled, and on its back grew the green moss which
is to the caymans what gray hairs are to men. Roaring like a bull and
beating its tail against or catching hold of the sides of the corral,
it opened its huge jaws and showed its long, sharp teeth. The pilot
was hoisting it alone, for no one had thought to assist him.

Once out of the water and resting on the platform, he placed his
foot upon it and with his strong hands forced its huge jaws together
and tried to tie its snout with stout knots. With a last effort the
reptile arched its body, struck the floor with its powerful tail,
and jerking free, hurled itself with one leap into the water outside
the corral, dragging its captor along with it. A cry of horror broke
from the lips of all. But like a flash of lightning another body shot
into the water so quickly that there was hardly time to realize that
it was Ibarra. Maria Clara did not swoon only for the reason that
the Filipino women do not yet know how to do so.

The anxious watchers saw the water become colored and dyed with
blood. The young fisherman jumped down with his bolo in his hand and
was followed by his father, but they had scarcely disappeared when
Crisostomo and the pilot reappeared clinging to the dead body of the
reptile, which had the whole length of its white belly slit open and
the knife still sticking in its throat.

To describe the joy were impossible, as a dozen arms reached out to
drag the young men from the water. The old women were beside themselves
between laughter and prayers. Andeng forgot that her _sinigang_
had boiled over three times, spilling the soup and putting out the
fire. The only one who could say nothing was Maria Clara.

Ibarra was uninjured, while the pilot had only a slight scratch on
his arm. "I owe my life to you," said the latter to Ibarra, who was
wrapping himself up in blankets and cloths. The pilot's voice seemed
to have a note of sadness in it.

"You