eeping reptile.

Then both the doctor and Carey held their breath with excitement, as the
old sailor reached out, slipped the noose over one of the fins, and then
started back deluged with water dashed up by the startled creature,
which rushed off with all its might till it was brought up short by the
line coming to an end.

At this there was a violent jerk, the raft was drawn out of its course
and began to move at increased speed in the direction of the opening in
the great reef, the prisoner making for the open sea.

"Better come and give a hand here, Mr Carey, sir," cried Bostock. "I
ought to guide him a bit and make, him tow us our way so as to get him
ashore. What do you say to the mouth of the river? If we could get him
to run up there it would be splendid."

"And what about the crocodiles, Bob?"

"Eh? Ah! I forgot all about them, sir. Never mind; anywhere 'll do.
That's right, sir; lay hold. Strong a'most as a helephant, aren't he?
Wo ho! my lad. Don't be in a flurry. Well, I _am_ blest!"

One minute they were gliding steadily over the lagoon; the next the rope
hung loosely in their hands.

"Lost him?" said the doctor.

"Yes, sir. We must have pulled one of his fins out. Dessay we've got
it here."

"The rope slipped over it, Bob," said Carey, in disappointed tones, as
the noose was hauled aboard. "Oh, we ought to have had that. It was a
beauty."

"Never mind," said the doctor. "Steer for the shore, and let's get off
on our trip."

Bostock turned to his steering oar and shook his head in a very
discontented way.

"It's just as I said about the pearls, Master Carey; it don't do to
reckon on anything till you get it. But I ought to have had that chap."

They made fast the raft and landed soon after, a little chipping with a
crowbar having turned a rough mass into a pier which ran right up to the
sand and sort of put an end to the necessity for wading.

Then kits and guns were shouldered, and, light-hearted and eager, Carey
followed the doctor, who struck in at once through the great belt of
cocoanut palms, and, pushing upwards through beautifully wooded ground,
soon took them beyond the parts heretofore traversed by Carey, who now
began to long to stop at every hundred yards to investigate a flowering
tree where insects swarmed, or some clump of bushes noisy with cockatoos
or screaming parrots. But the doctor kept steadily on till a dull
humming roar away to the right began to grow