heard a
tremendous splashing and thrashing noise, accompanied by heavy blows, as
if the monster was striking hard at something near.

But I lay perfectly still, feeling that the wounded monster would on
seeing me make a spring, and if it did I knew that my life was at an
end.

The splashings and the dull beating sound continued, but I kept behind
the sheltering tree, now wondering whether the creature would have
strength to get back into the river, or whether it would be there
waiting for its assailant. At last, fascinated as it were by the desire
to peep round the tree-trunk which sheltered me from my victim, I gently
peered out, and stared in astonishment, for there was Pomp busy at work
with his axe cutting off the reptile's head, while the tail kept
writhing and lashing the stream, alongside which it had nearly crawled.

"Dat's got um," cried Pomp. "Hi! Ohey! Mass' George."

I was already on my legs, and, gun in hand, I parted the bushes, and
joined the boy just as the monster gave a tremendous heave and a writhe,
and rolled off the bank with a tremendous splash in the water.

"Ah, you no kedge fish and eat um no more, eh, Mass' George?" he cried.
"'Gator no good widout um head, eh?"

I looked down on the mud, and there, sure enough, lay the creature's
head.

"Why, Pomp!" I exclaimed; "what have you been doing?"

"Cut off um head, Mass' George. He no like dat."

Pomp broke out with one of his laughs, hooked hold of the grinning head,
and dragged it out of the mud up to the side of a clear pool, a little
way back in the swamp.

"Stop a bit," I said; "I want to have a good look at it."

"Wait till I wash um, Mass' George. No; must wash umself fus. Here a
mess."

Pomp was about to jump into the pool to wash the mud from his legs, when
he suddenly clapped his hands.

"Oh, here's game, Mass' George; only look. Dat's ole 'gator's house a
water, where he keep all 'um lil pickaninny. Look at 'um."

Sure enough, there were five or six small alligators at the far end--
little fellows not very long out of the shell.

"Oh dear!" cried Pomp, "I very sorry for you poor fellows. Poor old
fader got um head cut off. What, you no b'lieve um? Den look dah."

He threw the great head into the pool with a splash, and then jumped in
to stand up to his knees, washing it about till it was free from mud,
and his legs too, when he dragged it out again on to the green moss, and
we proceeded to examine the horri