ich broke water directly under our
bows; the shock being instantly followed by a long moaning sigh and a
tremendous swirl of the water as the creature--whatever it was--sank
again beneath the surface of the river.

The men in the launch were, like myself, considerably startled at the
circumstance, and one of them--an Irishman--exclaimed, in the first
paroxysm of his dismay:

"Howly ropeyarns! what was that? Is it shipwrecked, stranded, and cast
away we are on the back of a say-crocodile? Thin, Misther Crocodile,
let me tell yez at wanst that I'm not good to ate; I'm so sthrongly
flavoured wid the tibaccy that I'd be shure to disagray wid yez."

This absurd exclamation appealed so forcibly to the men's sense of the
ridiculous that it had the instant effect of steadying their nerves and
raising a hearty laugh, which, however, was as instantly checked by
Smellie, who, though he could not restrain a smile, exclaimed sharply:

"Silence, fore and aft! How dare you cry out in that ridiculous
fashion, Flanaghan? I have a good mind to report you, sir, as soon as
we return to the ship."

"_Who shall say how many of us will live to return_?"

"Merciful God! who spoke?" hoarsely cried the second lieutenant. And
well he might. The words were uttered in a sound scarcely above a
whisper, in so low a tone, indeed, that but for Smellie's startled
ejaculation I should almost have been inclined to accept them as
prompted by my own excited imagination; yet I saw in an instant that
every man in the boat had heard them and was as much startled as myself.
Who had uttered them, indeed? Every man's look, as his horrified
glance sought his neighbour's face, asked the same question. Nobody
seemed to have recognised or to be able to identify the voice; and the
strangest thing about it was that it did not appear to have been spoken
in the boat at all, but from a point close at hand.

The men had, with one accord, laid upon their oars in the first shock of
this new surprise, and before they had recovered themselves the first
cutter had ranged up alongside.

"Did anyone speak on board you, Armitage?" asked Smellie.

"No, certainly not," was the reply.

"Did you hear anyone speak on board the second cutter then?" followed.

"No; I heard nothing. Why?"

"No matter," muttered the second lieutenant. Then, in a low but
somewhat louder tone:

"Give way, launches; someone has been trying to play a trick upon us."

The men resumed